Emergency Response & Crisis Management: The Important Role of Information Technology.

Emergency Response & Crisis Management:

The Important Role of Information Technology

Name two things thata) people never get enough

of, b) are always lacking in crisis

Communication Planning In today’s world, most

communication takes place through

Information technologies

Distinctions in Audience

With whom are we communicating? Higher Education

Staff /students /general public K-12 audience

Parents / general public Staff students

Situation communicated in age-appropriate terms

The context… December 2004, emergency

response capability assigned to me March 21, 2005 Red Lake, MN Mayor Furness, Chief Magnus, Lt.

Paul Laney “Are we ready for something

like that?” “I don’t know, but will find out”

The context…

Four stages Prevention/mitigation –anti-bullying

programs, School Resource Officers etc.

Preparedness – Plan equip train

Response – can your staff execute the plan!

Recovery – including reunification of students and parents, counseling etc.

The context… Train building response teams Train leadership Expand equipment

Radios and cameras Police & fire train in buildings

Police train in multiple and single man entry

Secret Service Threat Assessment ||: Test, evaluate, revise plan :||

The context…

adopted by schools in Cass & Clay Counties adapted to their buildings

After discussions with law enforcement

and superintendents, the plan is

CASS COUNTY, ND

• Central Cass Schools• Fargo Public Schools• Fargo Catholic Schools

Network• Hope-Page Schools• Kindred Public Schools• Mapleton Elementary

School• Maple Valley Schools• Northern Cass Schools• Oak Grove and Grace

Lutheran Schools• West Fargo Public

Schools

CLAY COUNTY, MN • Barnesville Public

Schools• Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton• Hawley Public Schools• Moorhead Public Schools• Park Christian Schools• Ullen-Hitterdahl Schools

Equipping the buildings

Surveillance cameras in all buildings Currently, 270 cameras feeding DVRs Each building’s cameras available to

principal All building can be viewed by six SROs

and me More later…

Equipping the buildings Floor plans of all buildings with

shut-offs, hazardous and flammable materials Set of CAD files for fire department Set of PDF files and laminated hard

copy for SWAT Flashdrives on DO personnel

Master fobs in every patrol car Master keys on shift commander’s

ring

Internal communication VoIP phones set with portable

switch creates portable Emergency Operations Center for District 3 sites configured in various areas of

the District Governmental Emergency

Telecommunications Service (GETS) card Priority service on all cell phone

systems

Internal communication Considering emergency alert software

extWARN, CampusE!ALERT etc. Multi-purpose like Microsoft

Communicator Message mapping as communication

tools 3/9/27 rule

Threat Assessment Team Student records database + Police database

Interoperability!

Interoperability Kenwood two-way radios

Realities of analog police radios in large buildings

Permanent frequency assignment programmed into police radios

IT personnel trained to operate each other’s networks

Surveillance camera feed Fiber buried to City of Fargo Images to SWAT van Future to MDTs Connected to RRRDispatchCenter

External communication

Emergency Notification Network Two communication department

employees from Each of the ten largest employees Employees that do not have access to

mass media

External communication

Connect-ED® of NTI Group 400,000 calls in 30 minutes

Our experience all initial calls completed in 8 minutes

Most of remaining time, redials and bad numbers

Up to six phone numbers for each parent

SMS

External communication Connect-ED®

MP3 attached to email Nightly synchronization with our

student information system Security – parsing information to

multiple servers Ability to create messages for any/all

subgroups Local interpretive services Not a fast process

Emergency Response & Crisis Management: The Important Role of Information Technology

Lowell Wolff, APRFargo Public Schools

Communication & [email protected]