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COMMENTARY ARCHIVES

Think Tank Discussion: Active Shooter Situations

The International Association of Emergency Manager (IAEM) Think Tank on 17 October 2016 focused on active shooter situations from the emergency management perspective. The event was held at the IAEM Annual Conference, with over 250 people attending in person, many on the webinar, and even more over the phone.

Protecting Civil Liberties for Suspicious Activity Reports

In the United States, First Amendment rights protect the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of citizens. However, in the absence of legal requirements for establishing prior probable cause or reasonable suspicion when reporting suspicious behavior, questions arise about the degree to which the suspicious activity reporting, Nationwide SAR Initiative,

Addressing Threats – From Concept to Field

To address various national threats and the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) role in military and civilian defense technology, DomPrep hosted a roundtable discussion on 21 July 2016 at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC). That discussion, which was moderated by ECBC’s BioScience Division Chief Peter Emanuel, brought together professionals

A Conversation That Should Have Happened

Appointment to an emergency management position is a proud moment as well as a moment that creates doubt, anxiety, and internal questioning of one’s own ability to handle a major catastrophe. Questions arise about the community’s hazards awareness, the status of the local emergency operations plan, and the proverbial, “What

The Things That Keep Experts Up at Night

DomPrep wanted to know what still keeps experts up at night. To answer this question, DomPrep hosted and Ron Vidal, a partner at Blackrock 3 Partners, moderated a panel discussion on 17 June 2016 at the Annual International Hazardous Materials Response Teams Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. This article summarizes that

Saving Lives With Gunshot Technology

In June 2016, Orlando, Florida, saw the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history. Although the shooter was known to law enforcement before the attack that killed 49 and injured more than 50 others, knowledge of extreme views or malevolent intent is often not enough to prevent a future attack months

Where Incident Management Unravels

The National Incident Management System (NIMS) is the mandated national framework for emergency incident management. It is a natural derivative of the Incident Command System developed in California after a particularly disastrous wildfire season in 1970. However, there are some notable reasons that it should not be considered the solution

Public Health – Opportunities for Action

On 7 June 2016, the DomPrep team convened 14 subject matter experts from various disciplines to address issues surrounding community resilience and public health. The purpose of the roundtable was to align the missions and identify action items to create synergy among various community stakeholders. This article summarizes the key

Bringing Public Health Preparedness Into the 21st Century

The probability of certain public health threats, the costs and funding related to such threats, and the “silo” effect of the public health sector all contribute to the preparedness gap between public health and other sectors. It is time to bridge this gap and update preparedness efforts to better prepare

Balancing Risk – Understanding & Preparing for Catastrophes

Space weather, nuclear, and catastrophic natural disasters are just lying in wait for the right combination of conditions. Although it is not possible to plan specifically for every type of threat – imaginable and unimaginable – it is necessary to weigh the risks associated with various threats and take sufficient

Electrical Systems & 21st Century Threats

One leading researcher shares his insights into the existential threats that the electrical infrastructure faces. He proposes that a superhighway with electrical systems protected at multiple points is not only feasible, but it could help reduce carbon emissions, build electromagnetic resilience, and address major space weather events that could threaten

Nuclear Proliferation in the Middle East

Now that the Iran nuclear deal is in effect, it is worth exploring whether this agreement will in fact: (a) constrain Iran’s efforts to build nuclear weapons and inhibit nuclear proliferation in the region; or (b) have unintended negative consequences that the United States and its negotiating partners did not

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