CIP Update

February 16, 2007

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

Michigan State University (MSU) produces the newsletter through the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP)-Community Facilitation Program under a grant awarded by the Office of Grants & Training, Preparedness Directorate, 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 visit our website at www.cip.msu.edu for more information about the program.

Participating Communities
Allentown, PA / Annapolis, MD / Bethlehem, PA / Brooklyn, OH / Brown County, WI / Carroll County, MD / Casa Grande, AZ / Clark County, NV / Douglas County, KS / Evansville, IN / GCCC-St. Louis, MO / Hoover, AL / Layton, UT / Lewis & Clark County, MT / Libertyville, IL / Littleton, CO / Marquette County, MI / Milwaukee, WI / Monroe County, MI / Northampton County, PA / Norwalk, CT / Oakland County, MI / Perkiomen Valley, PA / Redmond, WA / Racine, WI / Richmond, VA / Rockville, MD / Sandy City, UT

We are currently working with 28 communities and looking to work with a minimum of 21 cities, counties, and communities over the next couple of years. Of the 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? If so, please let us know.

Public-Private Disaster Coordination
The value of partnerships has been well documented by governmental agencies, business associations, scholars, and others for the joint management of critical incidents.  Additionally, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been emphasizing the importance of public-private partnership to states, tribal and local entities.  Through the CIP Program, we see the private sector taking a significant role in supporting partnerships.

Recently, the Business Executives for National Security (BENS), a premier business non-profit association, which focuses on homeland security, emergency preparedness, business continuity, and disaster recovery, published a report on how to integrate the business community into national disaster plans.  The Getting Down to Business: An Action Plan for Public-Private Disaster Response Coordination report is available in our "CIP Information Exchange" website.  This 62-page report contains recommendations based on best practices and lessons learned.  For example, according to BENS (2007), the business community should be involved in Emergency Operations Centers (EOC's) when communities activate them.

The report focuses on three main areas: public-private collaboration, surge capacity/supply chain management, and legal & regulatory environment.  Further, it also describes nine themes, such as companies' experiences in preparing for crises is extensive and applicable to government preparations.  This is an excellent guide on what the business community is doing and on how to integrate the public and private sectors for joint critical incident management.

You may view the report at http://www.bens.org/Getting-Down-To-Business.pdf and for more information about BENS, go to http://www.bens.org.

Norwalk, CT is Building the Partnership
In December 2006, the City of Norwalk initiated their public-private partnership through the CIP Program.  In continuing the process to sustain the partnership, they recently met and established the following initiatives:

• Invite new businesses to join the partnership
• Provide training on emergency planning and vulnerability assessment to all participating businesses
• Establish a committee to catalog and collate resources in the community for disaster recovery
• Establish a committee focusing on non-profit and service agencies to enhance their emergency preparedness
• Establish a committee on public information to ensure dissemination of information to the community prior to a disaster
• Establish a committee focusing on the Emergency Support Functions (ESF's)

Brown County, WI is Building the Partnership
In November 2006, Brown County joined the CIP Program to create their partnership.  Since then, the leadership has met to discuss the next meeting for the full membership.  The following initiatives will be discussed:

• Sharing of resources, information and expertise between the sectors
• Developing a joint exercising program
• Ensure that public and private sector response plans are integrated
• Ensure that joint training is conducted within the framework of the National Incident Management System (NIMS)
• Credentialing of the private sector to ensure access to vital records and systems during evacuations

We appreciate Brown County sharing these topics of interest with us, yet during discussions their focus might change.  More importantly, it should be noted that public agencies, businesses, and other organizations are meeting to collaborate on enhancing their community’s level of preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery processes.

A Project for Networking and Critical Incident Preparedness
One aspect of the CIP Program involves using social capital surveying to measure the level of networking and critical incident preparedness in communities.  Social capital is defined as cooperation and collaboration between the public and private sectors in order to achieve a common goal.  Understanding the dynamics of relationships in the community assists in building effective partnerships to address critical incidents and emergencies.

MSU is conducting the Enhanced Social Capital Survey Project (ESCSP). The purpose of the ESCSP is to further explore trends in social capital, which involves administering the survey and conducting personal interviews in eight communities, which previously participated in the CIP Program.

In 2002, the city of Redmond, Washington initiated their partnership through the CIP Program.  As communities change, along with agencies, businesses, and organizations the ability to sustain a partnership for critical incident preparedness also changes.  The CIP staff will be traveling to Redmond next month to administer social capital surveys and to conduct interviews at the original organizations that participated.

Upon completion of the project, MSU will distribute a report to all participating communities and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security illustrating  the trends in social capital that communities utilize for collaboration on critical incident preparedness.

The Intelligence Toolbox Training Program for Communities
MSU offers a free DHS approved course for local, state, and tribal law enforcement agencies to enhance or develop intelligence-led policing in communities, regardless of their size.  This two-day training program discusses developing intelligence missions, goals, and objectives, along with identifying trends and issues in law enforcement intelligence, obtaining a security clearance, gaining access to federal intelligence products, funding, and much more.

For more information on the program and to view a schedule of upcoming training sessions, please visit the website at: https://intellprogram.msu.edu/Index.php.

Michigan State University is widely recognized for its research, academic and outreach programs in the intelligence discipline.  MSU offers the Law Enforcement Intelligence Certificate, in addition to other related curriculum.  David L. Carter, Ph.D., MSU professor of criminal justice recently published Law Enforcement Intelligence: A Guide for State, Local and Tribal Law Enforcement.

CIP Happenings
The CIP Program represents 30 communities in 19 states with 1,923 attendees. We continually seek additional communities to work with.

If you would like to attend one of our workshops, please contact us.

• Riverwoods, Illinois on February 23, 2007 (Exploring a regional concept)
• Dallas, Texas on February 27, 2007
• Redmond, Washington on March 13-15, 2007 (Special project for Social Capital Surveying)
• Buncombe County, North Carolina on March 28, 2007
• Lansing, Michigan on April 12, 2007
• Greensboro, North Carolina on April 19, 2007

Recent Postings to CIP Information Exchange Website
The CIP Information Exchange website is a large database containing a wealth of information for public and private sector professionals interested in homeland security, emergency preparedness, business continuity, disaster recovery, and emergency management.  It contains research, government documents, news items, and more.  To enter the CIP Information Exchange website, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and enter “msu.msu@angel” in the User/NetID and “partnership” (both without quotation marks) as the password to log in. Click on CIP, which launches to the main menu.

Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are a variety of postings, including the following:

• Reducing Terrorism at Shopping Centers
• A State Resource – Weapons of Mass Destruction-Civil Support Teams
• Business Continuity Plan Template
• IACLEA – Lessons Learned for Hurricanes & Explosives for Colleges
• Animal & Ecological Terrorism in America

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.

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 wish to be on this list, please reply to this email.

Disclaimer
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or Michigan State University.

Source
Business Executives for National Security (BENS).  (2007).  Getting down to business: An action plan for public-private response coordination.  The report of the Business Response Task Force. pp. 1-60.  Retrieved on February 16, 2007 from http://www.bens.org/Getting-Down-To-Business.pdf

Please note my new email address of weberbr@msu.edu

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