CIP Update


November 22, 2006

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 go to: 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 / Hoover, AL / Layton, UT / Lewis & Clark County, MT / Libertyville, IL / Littleton, CO / Marquette County, MI / Milwaukee, WI / Monroe County, MI / Northampton County, PA / Oakland County, MI / Perkiomen Valley, PA / Redmond, WA / Racine, WI / Richmond, VA / Rockville, MD / Sandy City, UT

We are currently working with 26 communities and will work with another 23 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.

Happy Thanksgiving

From the staff at Michigan State University we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

CIP Program Spreads Across America

In 1998, MSU received its first grant from the federal government to research the best practices and lessons learned in public-private partnerships for joint crisis management.  In 2000, we published the Critical Incident Protocol – A Public and Private Partnership, which is a 42-page guide for businesses, agencies, organizations, and communities on how to create partnerships between the sectors.  Due to the success and interest in the publication the federal government asked MSU to develop a program where we would facilitate partnerships for cities, counties, and regions throughout the nation.  This program, which is at no-cost for communities, began in 2002 and involves two to four workshops over a period of six to twelve months.  This program is called the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) – Community Facilitation, otherwise known as the CIP program.

Since 2002, there are 28 participating communities in 17 states.  In the workshops, a total of 1,730 people have collaborated on the issues that reflect the community’s and participants’ desire to create partnerships.  Additionally, a total of 1,546 participants have attended 35 seminars, conferences, and workshops facilitated or co-sponsored by MSU on the value of partnership building.

Over the next months, the following communities will be joining the CIP Program:  Norwalk, CT / Dallas, TX / Lansing, MI / Buncombe County, NC / Anaheim, CA / Santa Ana, CA / Buffalo Grove, IL / Gateway Citizen Corp Council (St. Louis, MO), and we continue to discuss partnership issues with members from other cities, counties, and regions.

Yet, we are still looking for more communities!

Tabletop Exercises – Train Accident, LPG Leak, Traffic Congestion, Media, Evacuation

In the CIP Program, the last workshop for each community is a tabletop exercise.  For each community we facilitate two to four workshops.  The first focuses on the development of the partnership, followed by sustaining the partnership, and, finally, a tabletop exercise.  In the last workshop, we design a scenario around a participating business.  In the exercise, we have the business management team, along with the public sector agencies which typically respond, work in a large classroom setting.  The scenario begins with an incident which escalates through response segments and concludes with a recovery.  In the exercise, we encourage both sides to collaborate, as if they were in a joint Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

During these exercises, we routinely hear the participants comment on what they have learned, and what they were not aware of when working with businesses, police, fire, EMS, health, emergency management, and other stakeholders.

Recently, in Helena, Montana we facilitated an exercise involving a train accident, resulting in a LPG leak that also included massive traffic congestion, high interest by the media, and evacuation.  Our thanks to the Lewis & Clark County CIP Partnership group for their excellent participation during this exercise.

The objectives in our tabletop exercises is to help identify roles, clarify responsibilities, enhance skills, measure the capability of resources, validate emergency response plans, improve communication and coordination, and build teamwork.

Planning, training, and exercising are activities that the majority of the CIP communities collaborate on.

International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) – Public/Private Partnership Resolution

Last month at the 113th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the IACP reaffirmed the value of public-private partnerships by formally introducing a resolution to support the policy recommendations from the 2004 Private Security/Public Policing Summit.  IACP has been an advocate of police/security partnerships for years and formally supports the CIP Program.

The resolution included:

 

To learn more about the 2004 Summit, please visit their website at: http://www.cops.usdoj.gov/mime/open.pdf?Item=1355.


Planning and Crisis Management Methods


When businesses and non-profit organizations partner with the public sector for critical incident management, there are some steps that should be included:

 

An Excellent Resource for Partnerships

 

The Critical Incident Protocol – A Public and Private Partnership is a 42-page how-to-guide discusses the mutual benefits of joint planning, the value of leadership, why and how to conduct a risk assessment, critical incident planning, exercising and training, mitigating the impact of a crisis, how to collaborate with the media, emergency response, and the importance of recovery and business resumption.  It contains additional resources as well, including personal statements from both public and private sector leaders.

 

 “Both the public and private sectors commented that support for the partnership process must start from the top.  Too many managers and community administrators are still in a state of denial or hoping disasters won’t happen on their watch. (Jones, 2000, p.7)”

 

This publication is relevant for today’s business, agency, or non-profit leader.  To view or download the publication, please visit our website at www.cip.msu.edu and click on “Booklet. PDF” in the menu.

Recent Postings to CIP Information Exchange Website

To enter the "CIP Information Exchange" website, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and entermsu.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:

“NIMS Guide for County Officials”

            “NACo 2006 Survey of Emergency Managers in USA Counties”

“USFA Releases Fire Service Needs Assessment Findings”

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.

Sources

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) (October 17, 2006).  IACP 2006 Resolutions.  IACP 113th Annual Conference, Boston, Massachusetts.  Retrieved on November 22, 2006 from: http://www.theiacp.org/documents/pdfs/WhatsNew/ACF480E%2Epdf.

Jones, R.W.  (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
East Lansing, MI 48823
Work:  (517)  355-2227
Cell:  (517) 206-1640
Visit our website at
www.cip.msu.edu