CIP Update

October 05, 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, mitigation, response, and recovery.

Michigan State University (MSU) produces the newsletter through the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP)-Community Facilitation Program under a grant awarded by the Training & Exercise Integration Division, 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.  The CIP Program is free of charge to participating communities.

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 33 communities in 20 states with over 2,300 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 / Dane County, WI / Douglas County, KS / Evansville, IN / GCCC-St. Louis, MO / Greensboro, NC / Hoover, AL / Lake-Cook Corridor, IL / 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
October 10, 2007 - Richmond, VA   (Facilitate Tabletop Exercise)
October 18, 2007 - Layton, UT   (Facilitate Tabletop Exercise)
October 19, 2007 - Denver, CO  (Presentation at Critical Infrastructure Protection Conference)
October 26, 2007 – Madison, WI  (Dane County CIP Partnership Meeting)
November 14, 2007 - Carterville, IL  (Presentation at the Southern Illinois Occupational Safety & Health Conference)
December 4, 2007 – Milwaukee, WI  (Facilitate Tabletop Exercise)

Correction
In the last ‘CIP Update’ newsletter, we profiled the “Business Recovery Manager’s Association” (BRMA) along with other groups that focus on public-private partnerships for joint crisis management.  BRMA is located in California and provides business recovery, disaster recovery, contingency & continuity planning, and emergency response management services.  Unfortunately, we provided the wrong website address – our apologies.  To learn more about BRMA, please go to www.brma.com.

Draft “All Hazards Risk Management Systems Best Practices Standards” by ASIS
The American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) is the largest national organization for security professionals and provides leadership, guidance, networking, and many other services.  For more information on ASIS, go to http://www.asisonline.org.

ASIS released its draft “All Hazards Risk Management Systems Best Practices Standard”, a systems management approach to security, preparedness, business continuity, and disaster recovery for critical incidents resulting from an emergency, crisis, or disaster.  ASIS is currently soliciting comments and feedback on this 42 page document.  This guide is applicable to public agencies, businesses, non-profit organizations, and other stakeholders.  To review the document, please go to: http://www.asisonline.org/documents/documentAcknowledge.xml?document=guidelines/guideline_hazard_draft.pdf.

Best Practice / Joint Training on Earthquake Damage Assessment
The majority of the communities which participated in the CIP Program implement joint planning, training, or exercising that range from formal to informal processes.  The CIP staff strongly encourages communities and stakeholders to maintain contacts to strengthen partnerships in planning for, responding to, and recovering from man-made and natural disasters.   Recently, the Lewis and Clark County CIP group in Helena, Montana shared some information on an upcoming training.  A national engineering corporation in Helena is offering free training on the assessment of damage upon buildings due to earthquakes.  The training is provided with the expectation that participants can be utilized in the future to assist on damage assessments.  The workshop is co-sponsored by the county emergency management department.

There are many opportunities for communities to draw upon local experts from the public or private sectors to help in preparing and planning for an inevitable crisis.

Unique Events
There are several types of critical incidents which may either directly or indirectly impact agencies, businesses, and non-profit organizations.  Across the nation, there are demonstrations, rallies, or events which typically operate without incident.  However, radical environmental and animal-rights groups have inflicted significant damage and injury both domestically and internationally.  For example, in the United States, October 13– 21, 2007 is designated as the U.S. is the National Primate Liberation Week according to an animal rights group.  Occasionally, these events can also be divisive and emotional.  Public and private sector organizations in communities are encouraged to monitor these events.

Tabletop Exercising
One workshop offered to communities through the CIP Program is a tabletop exercise.  For those of you who may not be familiar with a tabletop exercise, this involves a group of people sitting in a classroom who collaborate on disaster response to a simulated crisis scenario.  The CIP tabletop exercise is slightly different than most public sector exercises.  We seek a business or non-profit organization from the community and design the crisis scenario based upon that entity.  Further, the scenario incorporates public sector response, such as police, fire, EMS, health, emergency management and other stakeholders.

In addition, the crisis management team from the ‘targeted’ business and public sector agencies are present during the exercise.  Typically, we invite other businesses from the community to observe both groups on how they would respond to and recover from the simulated crisis.  A tabletop exercise can identify shortfalls and gaps in plans, enhance relationships, communication, and teamwork, and can also affirm procedures that best address the crisis.  Listed below are some notable observations and recommendations from CIP staff and participants from recent exercises:

• Establish procedures for tracking visitors and off-duty employees in the facility during a crisis.
• Ensure that the police (i.e., applicable public agency) are familiar with business emergency response plans and procedures.
• Develop and practice coordination between public agencies and the private sector.
• Organize teams under an emergency coordinator.
• Identify alternate personnel for the primary decision-makers.
• Seek to include other departments, units, or teams that could be part of the planning and exercising process within the organization.
• Communications is a priority when involving public and private entities.
• Ensure that there is an off-site location for the crisis management team to work from, if needed.
• Personnel responsible for working with media need training.
• Personnel responsible for working with media should cross train between public and private sectors.
• Identify temporary evacuation sites for each organization.
• Business continuity plans should be reviewed with the appropriate public agency.
• Businesses should invite public agencies to their facilities for a tour.
• Ensure that the ‘right players’ are at the table.
• Public sector agencies should train collectively on unified command; those communities already proficient in this should take it to the next step by training with private sector entities.

Best Practices – Missouri Emergency Resource Information System (MERIS)
The state of Missouri has created MERIS, which is a statewide initiative for incident management, resource tracking, communications, and requesting assets for critical incidents.  MERIS is for state and local public agencies and the private sector.  Program services will include situational reports, alerts and notifications, critical infrastructure protection, volunteer management, donation management, damage assessment, and other functions.  The state is encouraging businesses to utilize MERIS for donating products and services to be used during a crisis.  To learn more about MERIS you can read the following executive summary at http://www.dps.mo.gov/HomelandSecurity/MERIS%20Executive%20Summary%20%5B25APR07%5D.doc

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 the main menu.

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

• Handbook on the Identification and Use of Disguised Weapons
• Suspicious Videotaping of Facilities
• Anthrax Drill – Post Office Delivering Antiviral to 23,000 People in Six Hours
• Critical Infrastructure Protection – Community & Organizational Approaches
• DHS Releases National Preparedness Guidelines

There are numerous other resources located on the website. To locate a specific topic, utilize 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.

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