COMMUNICATION & INTEROPERABILITY ARCHIVES

Making Planning Documents More Than Words on Paper

President Harry S. Truman once said, “I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can’t possibly foresee now.” However, terms like big and comprehensive do not always equate to size. Something that is laborious and unread adds no value for those tasked with managing emergencies and disasters. However,

Defining Workplace Violence

Workplace violence often starts with a person(s) involved in a criminal activity or violent relationship who has access to a place of business. Despite intervention efforts, a disgruntled employee who was not properly vetted could pose a significant risk to the organization. When an organization begins preparing for a workplace

Preparedness Promoters – Assessing Marginalized Populations

Certain populations are more vulnerable when faced with disasters. By adapting a public health model, community leaders can identify common vulnerability indicators and close the gaps between emergency management plans and target population vulnerabilities. Learn how.

Covenant School – Reviewing Another Tragic Shooting

March 2023 saw four school shootings, with the shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, serving as the deadliest and garnering the most media attention. With so much coverage, focus, and effort to counter school shootings since Columbine, it raises the question of why the United States still has so many

Information Sharing – A Powerful Life-Saving Tool

Information sharing is a valuable tool used for various purposes. However, this tool’s power in preparing for and responding to emergencies should not be underestimated. Unfortunately, critical information and data can sometimes be misused, not effectively leveraged, not shared, or simply ignored. In these scenarios, it is more difficult to

Challenging the Next Generation to Communicate Preparedness

Communicating preparedness messaging is simple. According to sociology professor Benigno Aguirre, messages should be clear, understandable, accurate, credible, and specific. Messages should also be universal, timely, self-validating, and available everywhere. If the entire population received all information the same way, this would indeed be simple. However, public information officers know

A National Plan to Link Response and Recovery

Federal government-wide disaster planning dates to the Cold War-era Federal Response Plan (FRP) and similar documents that described how the United States would respond to nuclear war and severe disasters. This singular plan was maintained and updated after the Cold War ended. However, following the attacks of September 11, 2001,

Leader of the Pack – Canine Detection

Technology such as drones, robots, listening and visual devices, etc., have successfully been used for search and rescue operations in numerous disaster responses. Yet, in many ways, a tool used for centuries continues to be as valuable, if not more effective, in finding and rescuing lost and trapped persons, recovering

An Integrated Public Safety Approach for Evolving Threats

Violence prevention, hardening potential targets, eliminating threats, and reducing victim count are shared goals among all public safety stakeholders during mass casualty and other high-threat incidents. However, priorities and strategies among first responders and regional policymakers vary, and bad actors are often a step ahead of those committed to saving

Data Sharing – A Necessary Public Safety Tool

Cooperative data sharing is essential for today’s law enforcement demands. Each day, law enforcement officials tackle their jurisdictions’ unique needs and challenges. What each department faces will vary from city to city and state to state. But there is one element all departments and agencies have in common: the critical

Linking Resilience and Innovation for Emergency Preparedness

Most industries suggest a certain level of resilience and innovation. It is important to get through challenging times to keep a company going, and “innovate or die” has long been a mantra of the business world. While these concepts – or in some cases, buzzwords – come up in various lines of

Building Business Post-Disaster – A Florida Case Study

There is a familiar saying among emergency planners: “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Though it seems counterintuitive to those outside the industry, planners and decision-makers understand opportunities can be found in the wake of great devastation. Even as they recognize this potential, it can be challenging to know

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