Practical Advice
Organizations need to take a variety of steps to prepare for worst-case scenarios
- By Jana Rankin
- September 01, 2017
JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO MARKED THE 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
OF THE SHOOTING MASSACRE AT VIRGINIA
TECH. ON APRIL 16, 2007, 23-YEAR-OLD STUDENT
SEUNG HUI CHO SHOT AND KILLED 32 PEOPLE AND
WOUNDED 17 OTHERS BEFORE KILLING HIMSELF. THE
INCIDENT, WHICH RANKS AS ONE OF THE DEADLIEST
MASS SHOOTINGS IN U.S. HISTORY, WILL ALWAYS SERVE
AS A REMINDER TO SECURITY AND LAW ENFORCEMENT
PROFESSIONALS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING
WELL-CRAFTED, DETAILED AND PRACTICED INCIDENT
MANAGEMENT AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANS IN
PLACE ON CAMPUSES.
A report of the incident commissioned by former Virginia Gov. Tim
Kaine found significant breakdowns in communication between the
university and the campus community. For example, the report noted
that university administrators failed to send out a campus-wide notification
about a pair of homicides committed by Cho at the West Ambler
Johnston residence hall, which preceded the mass shootings at Norris
Hall, until nearly two hours after the fact. It also stated that “university
practice may have conflicted with written policies,” which is a classic
problem with many incident response plans in place today.
Oftentimes, an organization or school will create a plan and just file
it away on a shelf to collect dust. If a plan isn’t regularly reviewed and
practiced, then when it comes time to deal with an actual emergency—
severe weather, a health scare or an active shooter—the chances for
loss of life and injuries are higher.
But, what are the hallmarks of a good incident management and
emergency plan? Discussed below are several key considerations that
every organization, both public and private, should take into account
when developing these plans, and how to ensure the guidance they
provide remains timely and relevant.
COMMUNICATION IS KEY
As evidenced by Virginia Tech and numerous other tragedies, communication
should be the first and foremost consideration in the creation
of any emergency response plan. Internal communication
between an organization and their employees or a school and their
teachers and students should take precedent, followed by external
communication with law enforcement and other first responders.
It sounds simple enough, but there are numerous questions that
must be asked and answered to ensure that accurate and timely information
is communicated during an emergency situation. Some of
these include:
- What channels will be used for emergency communications? This
used to be a more straightforward proposition than it is today. Mass
notification solutions give organizations the ability to send out both
standardized and custom messages through a variety of methods—
text, email, etc.—with the push of a button. The way people consume
information is always changing, and the advent of social
media has thrown an additional layer of complexity into the mix.
While a text may work best for one person, sending a Tweet may be
just as effective to another. Change to an email or digital signage can
reach more individuals. Try to adopt a strategy that is as comprehensive as possible and fits the needs of
your particular situation.
- Who is responsible for communicating
with both internal and external stakeholders
during an emergency? There needs to
be a clearly defined chain of command
within every organization as to who should
be responsible for communicating with
each group of stakeholders (employees, first
responders, etc.) and how they are going to
communicate with them. There should also
be backups to fulfill these duties in case one
or more people are out at given time.
- How do we want to tailor communications
for different situations? Because
each emergency event is different, response
protocols can vary. How a bomb threat is
handled within a facility is obviously much
different than an active shooter. As such,
the messages and their content that people
receive need to reflect to proper procedures
to follow for a given situation.
ADDRESSING EXTERNAL
STAKEHOLDERS
Communication with external stakeholders,
such as the relatives of employees and students,
is also paramount and can help organizations
and schools mitigate the potential of a situation
from going bad to worse. In the aftermath
of the recent murder-suicide at North Park
Elementary School in San Bernardino, Calif.,
parents fearing for their children’s lives began
flocking to the school while it was still an
active scene. This type of behavior not only
puts the lives of parents at risk, but it also poses
a distraction for law enforcement who must
make sure the threat is neutralized.
One way to avoid having a repeat of this
situation is to get out ahead of it and send out
a mass notification—text, social media change
to voice broadcast call, email, etc.—apprising
these stakeholders of the situation to the best
extent possible and letting them know that it’s
not safe to come to the facility. Designating a
location beforehand that people can go to
during a crisis in the area nearby and communicating
that in the same message is
another good way to avoid having throngs of
panicked people show up on your doorstep at
the worst possible time.
INVOLVING FIRST RESPONDERS IN
EMERGENCY PLANNING
It almost goes without saying but it is paramount
that first responders, namely local law
enforcement and fire department officials,
should be involved in the incident management
planning process for any organization.
Not only do they need to understand what the
specific emergency messaging and evacuation
protocols are of a particular business or institution,
but they also need to be familiarized
with the ins and outs of facilities themselves.
Knowing the various points of ingress and
egress, locations of security cameras, and so
forth will help them respond better at a
moment’s notice.
Failing to keep first responders in this decision-
making loop or providing them with
updated contact information for the principals
can have disastrous consequences. Just
take the aforementioned report on the Virginia
Tech shooting, for example. It noted that
police were not adequately involved in the
decision-making process. The report stated:
“The emergency response plan of Virginia
Tech was deficient in several respects. It did
not include provisions for a shooting scenario
and did not place police high enough in the
emergency decision-making hierarchy. It also
did not include a threat assessment team. And
the plan was out of date on April 16; for example,
it had the wrong name for the police chief
and some other officials.
“The protocol for sending an emergency
message in use on April 16 was cumbersome,
untimely, and problematic when a decision was
needed as soon as possible. The police did not
have the capability to send an emergency alert
message on their own. The police had to await
the deliberations of the Policy Group, of which
they are not a member, even when minutes
count. The Policy Group had to be convened to
decide whether to send a message to the university
community and to structure its content.”
Another critical aspect that can help first
responders in a worst-case scenario is making
maps and other diagrams of campuses available.
Even if an organization is in sync with
public safety leaders in the planning process,
those officers and firefighters first arriving at a
scene may not know where to respond. The
ability to quickly access a building layout is
essential for saving lives when seconds count.
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
No matter how robust an organization’s plans
might be in dealing with a variety of disasters,
they are virtually worthless if they are never
practiced. In addition to holding at least two
internal tabletop training exercises per year
covering all possible scenarios, organizations
should try to hold one major response tabletop
or full-scale exercise that incorporates
public safety personnel.
Tabletop exercises simulate a real-life
event, complete with stressors that can be replicated
over and over. It forces people to think
on their toes and revert back to established
protocols in order to take the next step of the
training event. There may even be some issues
brought to forefront as a result of holding the
exercise that no one was aware of previously.
Organizations that conduct tabletops are generally
able to respond better during an actual
emergency because their plans have been
tested and employees or students have practiced
how to respond.
Additionally, holding regular drills, say for
sheltering in place during severe weather or
for fire evacuations, should take place at least
once a month. This takes little time, can be
very basic in nature, and keeps folks aware of
where they need go in the event of an actual
emergency.
LEVERAGE NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Technology continues to shape every industry
and security is no exception. As the
development of mass notification and other
emergency communication systems continues
to evolve, being able to utilize the newest
systems and devices will only help organizations
improve their response during emergencies
of all types. The capability to track
and locate all people on a given campus in
real time by simply using smartphones and
then integrate that information with existing
access control, video surveillance and other
security systems installed within a facility is
available today.
Putting this type of data at the fingertips of
first responders will undoubtedly save lives in
the future. Every organization owes it to their
stakeholders to explore these technologies,
learn how they can put them to use in their
own facilities and mitigate against potential
tragedies down the line.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was once
quoted as saying “plans are useless, but planning
is indispensable.” Truer words have never
been spoken when it
comes to developing and
implementing emergency
response protocols.
This article originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of Campus Security Today.