PSAD 302 University of Maryland Global Campus Public Safety Responses – Description
Readings:
PDF – The Historical Context of Emergency Management
To a greater or lesser extent, emergency management is a responsibility of nearly all public entities. This twenty-five-page chapter discusses emergency management from its early history through the reforms that occurred post-Katrina. In between, the reader learns about emergency management during the cold war, the natural disasters on the 1960’s, the focus on emergency management in the 1970’s, the nuclear attack concerns of the 1980’s, the defining disasters of the 1990’s, and ultimately the realignment that occurred post September 11, 2001.
Birth of the Fusion Center
Fusion Center Accountability and Intergovernmental Information Sharing
This eighteen-page article by Priscilla Regan and Torin Monahan discusses the creation of the Fusion Centers as a recommendation of the 9/11 commission. The Fusion Center was created to allow a network of information sharing from multiple disciplines both public and private, and to produce actionable intelligence products in an effort to thwart future terror attacks. As this model evolved, the concept of an anti-terrorism program shifted to an all-crime model, with an underlying statement that all terrorist activities begin with a criminal act. The Fusion Center system allows for first responders to report activity in their local jurisdictions and creates a web of information to assist in stopping such events as 9/11 from occurring once again.
Active threat response: Building a resilient community.
In his 13-page article, Jason Kepp discusses the evolution of the active threat, highlighting the need to build a stronger and more resilient community. Understanding the response to these events, along with the lessons learned from previous successes and failures, creates a new direction in active threat response for first responders, along with secondary support.
Public Safety during a Pandemic COVID-19 crisis: Looking back 1 year later–a look at the pandemic’s impact on law enforcement
The article highlights the challenges faced by various community members, along with members of law enforcement, while showing the necessary adaptation to assist the community with their needs through a time of uncertainty. It also highlights the increase in overdoses, domestic violence (due to the stay-at-home order), an increase in vehicle fatalities even with a reduction of traffic, and an increase in the homicide rate.
Supplemental reading
The sites and documents below are not required reading but are, instead, provided as resources. While it is not required that you thoroughly read the documents, it is recommended that you at least skim them for an appreciation of what they contain.
oPDF – Original proposal to create the Department of Homeland Security (June, 2002)
oPDF – Homeland Security Act of 2002
22 divisions unified to one Department of Homeland Security: Chronology of Events
Discussion Post 1:In the post 9/11 era, many changes have occurred within the American Law Enforcement community, some for good and some for worse. In fact, the modern police officer looks nothing like his predecessor from the pre-9/11 era, besides uniform colors and the familiar red and blue lights. The most significant change to modern policing is the militarization of departments and the warrior culture that comes with it. This change has placed advanced technologies such as ballistic armor, tactical communications, modern weaponry and accessories, and life saving training, to every officer at every municipal level in the United States. Many lessons that were learned in Iraq and Afghanistan have made there way to law enforcement officers, either by the veterans who have become police officers, or the veterans who have transferred their knowledge. While the majority of this equipment and training has been a good thing, such as the issuance or tourniquets (Rubinkam, M., 2017). But when used inappropriately, such as no-knock SWAT raids that have resulted in unnecessary or questionable deaths (Nakamura, D. 2022). Some of the tactics and mindset that have evolved post-9/11 is the warrior mindset, in which officers are instilled upon that it’s “Us versus them.” Their however has been a movement within some circles of law enforcement to transition to a “Guardian” mindset, where the emphasis is placed on protecting the community they serve (Mclean, K. 2019).
On September 11th, 2001, law enforcement was faced with an entirely new threat and was forced to rapidly adapt to it. This involved a heightened posture and a constant readiness to respond to the next potential attack. Couple that with a wave after wave of mass shootings, American law enforcement NEEDED to militarize itself and build it’s warrior mindset. But as time moves forward and lessons are learned, law enforcement needs to continue to remember that their core mission is to “Protect and Serve.”
Discussion Post 2:The post-9/11 era served as a major jump-off point to spark changes in how fire, EMS, and law enforcement operated in the US. Previously used standard operating procedures (SOP) had to change and develop to meet the new demands of the public regarding terrorism in the US. Two major changes that occurred were a total revamp of the incident command structure and the development of DHS via executive order by President G. W. Bush (The Historical Context of Emergency Management n.d.).
Before the events of 9/11, Fire Departments had a very detailed system in place to establish incident command located near its operations. On 9/11, IC was set up in the atrium of the South Tower of the World Trade Center which was also the first building to suffer from structural collapse. This led to further confusion, miscommunication, and the immediate loss of life -including the NYPD’s “first deputy commissioner and three of the five [highest] ranking chief officers,” (Shea et al., 2021) amongst countless other EMS, PD, and FD workers. Naturally, this caused a leadership vacuum that only made worse the events to come.
Following the events of 9/11, changes were made in the incident command structure in the fire department from the top to the bottom. Incident Command would no longer take place on the inside of a compromised structure, papers were published studying collapse zones found safe distances outside of a collapse zone to be 1.5 times the height of the structure (Naum, 2015). This is now a widely accepted science that is applied to all structure fires.
A major overhaul of how the US responds to terrorism and WMD is evident in the post-9/11 days. Outside of the obvious restructure of the IC system implemented across the country, the US was now facing a new issue that was lingering on our doorsteps. Terrorism was no stranger to the US before the events of 9/11, however, steps to mitigate and prevent damage and loss of life became one of the more important goals of the federal government. This sense of urgency was passed down to local emergency management municipalities who were pressured to make changes in their standard operating procedures/guidelines. WMD training became a part of SOPs for FD/PD/EMS as a part of their response to terrorism and emphasized additional resources in the event of a terrorist attack (Cassano et al., 2011). Additionally, HAZMAT and CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives) training was emphasized as basic training for FD and EMS personnel. Additional education was provided that helped build specialties down from centralized units within cities to additional volunteer and career departments allowing more department members to be trained in HAZMAT (Harvard et al., 2021). Part of this growth was due to the increased funds that became available passed down from the newly created Department of Homeland Security, which served as a focal point in the distribution of funds to local and state EMS agencies (Cassano et al., 2011). The change from a reactive to a proactive response to terrorism was made possible by these allocated funds passed down from DHS.
Before the events of 9/11, the US government had some experience dealing with disasters on a national level and had weighed the benefits of allocating federal funds in the response to national disasters that riddled the US in the 1960s. “Unlike previous emergency management/disaster legislation, this bill sought to do something about the risk before the disaster struck. It brought the concept of community-based mitigation into the practice of emergency management” (Haddow et al., 2021). National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 was a major step forward in the response, rather than the solution to changing how we deal with national emergencies. This act was one of the first bills passed by Congress to mitigate flooding disasters across the US. The previous years (1960-1968) brought damaging weather and seismic events throughout the nation that cost upwards of hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of American lives (Haddow et al., 2021). The country was realizing that the passage of ad hoc legislation in response to national emergencies was neither efficient nor helpful at lessening the damage. This became another great example of how our government dealt with disaster in a proactive, rather than a reactive response way.
Discussion Post 3:The agency known today as the Federal Protection Service was created in 1790 as “night watchmen” for the protection of government buildings in the new capitol (Kepp, 2018). Over time, FPS has been charged with protecting government buildings and their occupants from those who would harm them. The FPS was transferred into the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 following the Homeland Security Act. While it was moved into the DHS, the FPS’s primary functions have not changed in the wake of 9/11.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, created in 1978 by President Jimmy Carter was not the first of its kind (Bullock, 2008). Predating this emergency management specific organization were multiple acronym agencies who received little funding towards emergency response or preparedness. FEMA was created to fix this oversight of responsibility to the American People. After years of objective failure to complete the task assigned to the Agency, President Clinton named James Witt as Director of FEMA. Witt, having actual emergency management experience, provided a competent and capable foundation to update the agency. It is arguably due to Witt’s efforts that the emergency services responded the way they did on September 11th, 2001.
Public safety post 9/11 stresses the importance of a unified effort to prevent or intercept attacks on the United States. The “see something, say something” campaign being popular within modes of public transportation. This aspect of public situational awareness helps law enforcement agencies respond to claims. While it is not a proactive change, this communication and cooperation between first responders and civilians is still an effective preventative measure.
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