CIP Update

 

June 1, 2007

This newsletter is for public agencies, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders involved or interested 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 Training & Education Division, National Preparedness Directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency, 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. Through the CIP Program, Michigan State University facilitates public-private partnerships for cities, counties, and regions across the nation.

Please visit our website at www.cip.msu.edu for more information about the program.

Participating Communities in the CIP Program
The CIP Program has been initiated in 31 communities in 20 states with over 2,200 participants collaborating on public-private partnerships for joint management of critical incidents. We are looking to work with other cities, counties and regions. Is there a location in the nation that you think may be interested in developing a public-private partnership? If so, please let us know.

Currently, we are working with the following communities:
Allentown, PA / Annapolis, MD / Bethlehem, PA / Brooklyn, OH / Brown County, WI / Buncombe County, NC / Carroll County, MD / Casa Grande, AZ / Clark County, NV / Dallas, TX / Douglas County, KS / Evansville, IN / GCCC-St. Louis, MO / Greensboro, NC / 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

CIP Program Activities 

June 6, 2007 – Schnecksville, PA  (Presentations on Business Continuity and Public-Private Partnerships)

June 15, 2007 – Madison, WI  (Presentation on CIP Program for Dane County)

July 11, 2007 – Auburn Hills, MI  (Presentation on Building Public-Private Teams)

July 19, 2007 – Brown County, WI  (Tabletop Exercise through CIP Program)

July 24, 2007 – Riverwoods, IL  (Initiate CIP for Lake-Cook Regional Illinois)

July 26, 2007 – Schaumburg, IL  (Initiate CIP for Schaumburg, Illinois)

August 16, 2007 – Asheville, NC  (Tentative Tabletop Exercise through CIP Program)

September 12-13, 2007 – Dallas, TX  (Tentative Tabletop Exercises through CIP Program)

 

Building Community Resilience – Surveying Private Sector

The former chairman Michael Dunaway of the Chesapeake Critical Incident Partnership (CCIP) group in Annapolis, MD, developed a research project through the University of Maryland’s National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START).  MSU initiated the CIP Program in Annapolis in 2004 and the CCIP was subsequently formed using the public-private partnership for joint crisis management model.

 

MSU encourages communities to identify capabilities and needs on emergency preparedness, response, and recovery.  Traditionally, many communities have completed assessments or evaluations regarding the ability of public sector agencies to respond to man-made and natural disasters.  Additionally, several communities have identified their ‘critical infrastructure’, along with completing vulnerability assessments on the critical infrastructure.  However, there is still more to do across the nation.  The ‘Building Community Resilience’ project is designed to survey businesses and non-profit organizations to identify emergency preparedness and business continuity practices.  Ultimately, the survey results can be utilized in a variety of ways to foster community resilience.

 

The survey is structured to achieve four main goals:

1.   Provide information to the Office of Emergency Management and Chamber of Commerce in order to identify characteristics of private sector preparedness within the region and develop programs to support community public-private partnerships for emergency preparedness;

2.   Identify existing networks between local government, emergency management, the private sector, and local non-profit organizations that may reinforce emergency preparedness and response;   

3.   Raise awareness regarding the need for emergency preparedness and business continuity planning across the private sector and educate local business owners on resources available for assistance;

4.   Develop a model survey that can be used to conduct assessments in communities across Maryland or nation-wide.

 

Specific research questions to be pursued in this study:

1.   Characteristics of businesses that may or may not maintain emergency and continuity of operations plans and who writes, maintains and executes the plans;

2.   Local perceptions of threats to business survival, community cohesion, and continuity of operations;

3.   Current extent of business continuity and emergency planning and potential inhibitors to planning;

4.   Initiatives to motivate private sector adoption of business continuity planning and emergency preparedness measures;

5.   Recommendations of local business and industry on initiatives that may increase private sector participation to ensure the security and resilience in the community.

 

The survey will identify potential points of interjection for training, education, and community initiatives that may enhance public and private sector preparedness within the community. Moreover, the survey provides an opportunity for analysis of public and private sector perceptions of threats to community stability and security; levels of current and desired preparedness; inhibitors to action for emergency preparedness and business continuity planning; and where responsibility for COOP or disaster preparedness planning resides within a given enterprise. Additionally, the survey will provide a snapshot of a community’s level of emergency preparedness, as well as an assessment of private sector resilience across business and industry categories by business size, type, revenue, and assets (publicly traded, privately owned, or non-profit). 

 

To learn more about START, go to http://www.start.umd.edu.   Our thanks to Michael Dunaway for sharing this information with MSU.

 

Creating Vigilant, Prepared, and Resilient Communities

MSU profiles organizations, workshops, or training opportunities relating to public-private partnerships for joint critical incident management.  The following program is ‘free’ for communities and is subsidized by the same federal agency which funds the CIP-Community Facilitation Program at MSU. 

 

The Western Community Policing Institute (WCPI), Western Oregon University is offering the ‘Creating Vigilant, Prepared, and Resilient Communities for Homeland Security: A Community Outreach Approach to Homeland Security' program across the nation.  The workshops are for both the public and private sectors.  In the workshops, participants will collaborate in cross-disciplinary teams to draw on collective skills, knowledge, and resources to address existing or potential homeland security threats at the community level.  Topics include problem-based learning, group dynamics, critical thinking, leadership, community policing, community responsibility, and more for this 2-day course (WCPI Program Brochure, 2007). 

 

To learn more about the program, please go to http://www.westernrcpi.com/docs/WCPC_HS_brochure_2.pdf and to contact WCPI, please visit http://www.westernrcpi.com.

 

Building a Public-Private Partnership for Joint Crisis Management

An excellent resource for agencies, businesses, non-profit organizations, and interested stakeholders on how to build a partnership between the public and private sectors for joint collaboration on managing disasters, emergencies, and crisis is the ‘Critical Incident Protocol – A Public and Private Partnership” publication.  Through a federal grant awarded to MSU, thousands of this 42-page how to guide were distributed in the United States and overseas.  Topics in the publication include mutual benefits of joint planning, leadership begins at the top, critical incident planning, exercising the plan, business resumption, media relations, and much more.

 

For example, on critical incident planning one begins with developing the plan, identifying responsibilities, and using managing command systems, such as the Incident Command System (ICS).  One of the first steps in emergency preparedness planning is identifying the risks or threats to the entity.  In the risk assessment segment of the publication, the first step is to conduct an assessment of the organization, incorporating the public sector into the private sector’s risk assessment process, and reviewing the mitigating factors in the process (Jones, 2000).

 

The publication is available at no cost on the CIP Program website at www.cip.msu.edu and downloading it from the main menu.  Or you may download it directly from http://www.cip.msu.edu/cip.pdf.

 

Recent Postings to the CIP Information Exchange Website
The CIP Information Exchange website is a large database for public and private sector professionals interested in homeland security, emergency preparedness, business continuity, disaster recovery, and emergency management. It also 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. On the next page, please 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:

·         Terrorists Increasingly Rely on Crime (Congressional Research Service)

·         GAO Report School District’s Emergency Preparedness – Challenges and Strengths

·         Free Email Services Protection for Businesses in Florida During 2007 Hurricane Season

·         Video Game Training for First Responders on WMD Incidents (EMR-ISAC)

 

There are numerous other resources located on the website. To locate a specific topic, use the "search" function.

 

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.

Sources:
Western Community Policing Institute (WCPI).  (2007).  Program brochure.  Retrieved on June 1, 2007 from: http://www.westernrcpi.com/docs/WCPC_HS_brochure_2.pdf.

 

Jones, Radford.  (2000).  Critical Incident Protocol – A Public and Private Partnership.  Office for Domestic Preparedness, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

 

 

 

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