CIP Update

December 05, 2005

This newsletter is for cities, counties and communities involved in public-private partnerships for joint emergency preparedness, planning and prevention. 

Michigan State University produces the newsletter through the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP)-Community Facilitation Program under a grant awarded by the Office for Domestic Preparedness, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  This newsletter provides ideas, suggestions, best practices and lessons learned to establish critical incident protocols using public-private partnerships.

Please go to www.cip.msu.edu for more information about the program.

Participating Communities

Allentown, PA / Annapolis, MD / Bethlehem, PA / Brooklyn, OH / Carroll County, MD / Casa Grande, AZ / Clark County, NV / Evansville, IN / Hoover, AL / Marquette County, MI / Milwaukee, WI / Monroe County, MI / Northampton County, PA / Oakland County, MI / Perkiomen Valley, PA / Redmond, WA / Racine, WI / Richmond Area, VA / Rockville, MD / Sandy City, UT

We are currently working with 20 communities and will work with another 24 cities, counties or communities over the next couple of years.  Of the 24 available CIP Programs, we are in contact with 10 communities.  Is there a location in the nation that you think may be interested in building a public-private partnership for joint emergency preparedness?

Welcome Perkiomen Valley, PA

On Nov. 29th we kicked off the CIP Program for Perkiomen Valley, PA which is in Montgomery County next to Philadelphia.  Located in the rolling hills and valleys of Pennsylvania is Perkiomen Valley, which is an upscale, quaint and historical area. 

We had 60 people representing Montgomery County, Methacton School District, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Perkiomen Township, Lower Providence Township, state representative R. Bunt, Ursinus College, PJM interconnection, PECO Energy, Comcast, The Times-Herald, Harleysville National Bank, Montgomery County Intermediate, Tosco Elite Real Estate, Le Jardin, TR Insurance, College Arms Apartments, Borough of Royersford, Worcester Township, Spring-Ford Area Schools, All In Stitches, GlaxoSmithKline, Phoenixville Federal Bank & trust, Commerce Bank, Trappe Borough, St. Gabriel’s Hall, Limerick Township, Merrill Lynch, Perkiomen Valley Schools, D.H. Kropp & Associates and the Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Our thanks to Dan Kropp of D.H. Kropp & Associates, Joe Fineran of the Montgomery County Department of Public Safety, along with Amy Purcell and Arlene Magargal of the Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce whose leadership brought the program to this area.  Also, our thanks to Comcast and PECO Energy for sponsoring the program, including upcoming workshops.

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

The CIP staff solicits examples between public and private sectors on best practices and lessons learned (BP/LL) for joint emergency preparedness. 

We keep a current list of PB/LL that we distribute when working with communities and/or doing presentations. To access the list, please go to the CIP Information Exchange at https://angel.msu.edu/home.asp and enter your user name and password and log in.  When it takes you to the next page, please click on CIP-Community Facilitation and it will take you to the main menu page.  Click on “Best Practices, Lessons Learned and Other CIP Tidbits” and on the next page open the top folder, which is the “BP/LL through the CIP Program”.  These were last updated in September 2005 and feel free to share it with others.  If you want more information from any of the examples, please contact us.

If you have an example, please share it with us.  The program grows because of you and your commitment to the public-private partnership for joint emergency preparedness.  Thank you.

National Incident Management System

 

When companies, large to small experience a significant crisis they are suddenly working closely with the emergency responder community.  Prior to a crisis, businesses do not usually work with the public safety leadership.  Traditionally, a crisis unfolds and the emergency responders come in to take over management of the event, while maintaining a liaison with the involved company.  From the public sector there could be police, fire, EMS, health, environment, emergency management and others.  The business quickly responds to the event, while maintaining a working relationship with the emergency responders.

 

Communication is one of the most important aspects or tools when working in a crisis!

Across the nation our public safety officials are using a federally mandated systematic method for communicating during a crisis.  More importantly, the private sector is being exposed and sometimes trained in using this same method, which is the Incident Command System (ICS).  The ICS method is a standardized, on-scene, all-hazard incident management concept. ICS allows its users to adopt an integrated organizational structure to match the complexities and demands of single or multiple incidents without being hindered by jurisdictional boundaries.

ICS principles use common terminology and clear text, and a modular organizational structure.  It emphasizes effective planning, including management by objectives and reliance on an Incident Action Plan.

For more information on ICS please refer to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s “National Incident Management System” website at http://www.fema.gov/nims.

Microsoft & Redmond Police Partnership

In 2002 MSU worked with the city police, Microsoft and UPS as a "pilot" CIP community in Redmond, Washington.  The Redmond Police Department, along with the other city departments had a relationship with these two large corporations, but wanted to take it to another level.  The CIP Program brought in key leadership from the city and the businesses to work on joint emergency preparedness.  Eventually, this partnership grew between Redmond Police and Microsoft.  It led to each organization sending their officers and/or security to each other's shift briefings, having city officers and security personnel working together in the same units while on-duty, having dispatchers from each organization sharing practices and procedures, and having Microsoft's Executive Protection Team work with the Redmond Police Department.  As we speak, this partnership continues to grow.

One of key figures that championed this partnership is Commander Ed Billington with the Redmond Police Department.  The Puget Sound Chapter #051 of the American Society for Industrial Society (ASIS) recognized Commander Billington with their "Leadership" award.  This was because of his leadership in developing a strong public/private partnership with Microsoft, and providing useful security strategies with local businesses through the Redmond Security Forum.  Our congratulations to Ed!

CIP Initiatives

The CIP Staff is involved in a number of initiatives in the area of public-private partnerships, such as:

Dec. 2005  /  CERT train-the-trainer seminar in cooperation with MSU’s Campus-Community Emergency Response Training (C-CERT) Program

Jan. 2006  /  Seminar for the Utah State Emergency Management Conference

Feb. 2006  /  Three seminars on “Enhancing your Business’s Emergency Preparedness by Developing Alliances” for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and partnering through Illinois community colleges

Feb. 2006  /  Seminar for the Illinois Community College Conference

Mar. 2006  /  Critical Infrastructure Protection Conference with the State of Michigan

May 2006  /  Seminar for Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa on “Enhancing Critical Incident Preparedness through Public and Private Sectors”

 

These do not include the ongoing partnerships with organizations that MSU has established through the CIP Program.

Recent Postings to CIP Information Exchange Website

To enter the "CIP Information Exchange" website, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and enter your user/password ID (or use msu.msu@angel in the User/NetID and "partnership" as the password to log in).  Click on CIP, which goes to the main menu.

Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are just a few of the following postings:

 

“Americans Still Not Ready for Disasters”

“District of Columbia Business and Industry Emergency Management Plan (BIEMP)”

“Homeland Security Urges Small and Medium Size Business to Take Steps to Prepare for Emergencies”

“The Public-Private Interface: What’s Not in Place and What to do about it”

There are numerous other resources located on the website.  To locate a specific topic, use the "search" function, which can be found on the main menu page on the right-hand side in the green task bar.

Starting a CIP Program

Feel free to make a referral to the MSU staff about possibly starting a CIP Program elsewhere in the United States.  We can use your assistance! 

Past Newsletters

If you are interested in viewing past CIP Update newsletters, please go to www.cip.msu.edu and select “Newsletters” from the main menu.   

Closing

If you have any topics and/or ideas for a future CIP Update newsletter, please contact Brit Weber at weberbr@msu.edu or (517) 355-2227 or other MSU staff members.  About every three weeks you will receive this newsletter via email.  If you no longer want to be on this list, please reply to this email.

 

Brit Weber
School of Criminal Justice
Michigan State University
1407 S. Harrison Rd., 335 Nisbet Bldg.
East Lansing, MI 48823
Work:  (517)  355-2227   Cell:  (517) 206-1640
weberbr@msu.edu
Visit our website:  http://www.cip.msu.edu