by Eric Holdeman: Emergency management in the blogosphere
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If you are like me, you might like to peruse the digital edition of Emergency Management Magazine before the print edition ends up in your mail box.
The latest May-June Edition of Emergency Management Magazine is on the web!
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Our last transition will always be death and so it was for Kenny Shaw, the longtime serving Dallas Emergency Management Director
Kenny was a very well known and nationally respected emergency manager. I only met him once briefly when I facilitated a Big Cities Emergency Managers session a few years back. How I mainly knew Kenny was via his frequent sharing of information to a broad range of people via email. It was that aspect of the man that I admired. Freely giving of himself and his knowledge.
It seems like only a few months back that I got an email from him saying he would not be sending any more emails and that his illness was making it too difficult. I did not understand at that point how ill he was.
Now is a good time to remember to tell others around you that you love and respect them for what they do in emergency management. The time will come soon enough that our own time to contribute will also end and if we can leave one legacy it is that we shared what we knew and appreciated others for their contributions.
God's speed Kenny Shaw!
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I see security and emergency management becoming much more aligned in the future. This goes beyond having a good relationship with your local police department or sharing grant funding with a broad spectrum of law enforcement.
With better weather here or just around the corner the number of open air events will dramatically rise. My fear coming out of the Boston Bombing is copycat kooks who want to make a name for themselves and see a way now to do it.
Here are some tips for dealing with outdoor events from a security expert:
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James McGee is a former FBI Special Agent and frequently published author, see Security Management for sports and Special Events
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I'm going to be giving a talk at the Emergency Management Magazine's Seattle Summit, this coming Tuesday. My topic is Trends and Challenges in Emergency Management. One of the things I'll be talking about is the move towards accreditation and certification within our government discipline of emergency management. It is already there within the private sector's business continuity programs. Of course, we also have the Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP)
If you didn't already know it, the primary document that provides a legal basis for what an emergency management or business continuity program should look like it is NFPA 1600: Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs And, there is new updated 2013 edition! Yes, for you App lovers, there is an NFPA 1600 App
Provisions in the document cover the development, implementation, assessment, and maintenance of programs for prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, continuity, and recovery.
Don Schmidt, chair of the NFPA 1600 technical committee shared the link above to the new standard.
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“I am addicted to the truth.” Eric Holdeman Addicts are people who can’t seem to kick the habit. They get a taste of something, drug, alcohol or in my case the truth and then they can’t get enough of it.
I believe in sharing information broadly with people to give them the best decision making tools. I of course can be and have been fooled by people peddling the truth who were in fact not truth-tellers. Most people are not outright dishonest. Instead they start living their lives and providing only the information that supports their points of view or what they want to happen. It isn’t that they tell falsehoods, they just don’t share the entire story when doing so gets in the way of what they want to accomplish. I have a problem with that style of living and truth-telling.
Many people don’t want all the information that is available. I guess they want “deniability” so they can say they didn’t have those facts in forming their decisions and guiding their actions.
Recently I shared with a new acquaintance that what has always gotten me in trouble in the past is being truthful. It has gotten me in trouble with people and organizations. So be it! When I go to my grave I might not be the wealthiest person or the most popular, but I will be most truthful person that I could be.
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40% of Americans willing to give up "some" Civil Liberties in order to fight terrorism. In reality public opinion will fluctuate all over the place based on current events. To say we are "fickled" would be an understatement. It is why the values that a person and a people have becomes more important than opinions. But then, even today I think people are having values become like opinions. Something that swings and sways with the times and events.
See the CNN/ORC Poll results below:
A new CNN/Time/ORC International Poll indicates four in 10 Americans say they are willing to give up some civil liberties to fight terrorism, and suggests worries about terrorism have edged up after the Boston Marathon bombings.
The national survey shows that concerns about terrorism are up slightly, with 40% saying they worry that someone in their family will become a victim of terrorism, up 6 percentage points from a 2011 CNN poll conducted on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
The survey also indicates that support for government monitoring of the Internet is down 8 points from right after 9/11, although there is still majority support: 55%. However, there is widespread and growing approval of the use of surveillance cameras in public places, with 81% saying they are in favor of it, nearly a 20 point jump from 2001.
The poll, conducted April 30, 2013, has a sampling error of +/-4 percentage points.
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Grants have played a key role in emergency management for the last 12 years. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 a whole host of grant programs have sprung up, one for every discipline it would seem. Now those glory years of funding are ending. Still, the management and more difficult task of allocation of grant funds is staring us in the face with a rapidly dwindling pot of money available.
This position Enhanced 911/Homeland Security Unit Manager has the unenviable task of trying to help in the allocation of funding and keeping all the players at the table and working on the issues. And, of course there is the 911 program. This goes beyond allocating state taxes collected for 911 systems. This position provides technological leadership to the state in implementing new next generation 911 systems statewide.
I strongly believe that when they combined the 911 and grants management leadership positions at State Emergency Management Division they made a mistake. They were trying to fix a leadership issue and took the wrong path. There is so much work to be done in the 911 world that it requires dedicated leadership and some technological know how to keep up with the pace of the consumerization of the communications market.
I think this is the toughest Unit Manager position to have at Washington State. It is not for the faint of heart!
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As noted previously, the life span of a senior appointed official in D.C. is about 18 months. So it is no surprise that people are rotating out of positions and others are "rotating in."
See excerpt from the announcement on Rand Beers serving as the Acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
Over the past four years, I [Secretary Napolitano] have had the honor and privilege of serving with Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute. She has been integral to the day-to-day operations and management of our Department — the third largest Cabinet agency in the United States. The Deputy Secretary’s contributions have been felt across DHS, strengthening cyber security, producing our first-ever Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, leading the development of the DHS surge capacity force, and much more. We thank Deputy Secretary Lute for her service to the Department over the past four years and to the country for nearly 35 years. We wish her the very best in her next endeavors.
It is my pleasure to announce that Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) Rand Beers will serve as the Acting Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, effective May 4. Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in June 2009, Rand has led NPPD’s integrated efforts to reduce risks to physical, cyber and communications infrastructures. From the first day of this Administration, Rand has served as one of my most trusted advisors, providing invaluable counsel and advice on a wide spectrum of homeland security issues, from counterterrorism efforts to cybersecurity.
Bill Cumming shared this information.
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See the information below for a Western Washington School Safety Symposium being held November 13, 2013. While that sounds like it is a long time away, school will soon be ending and advance planning and registration for the next school year's training events will save you money and ensure you have a seat at the event described below. If you are unable to travel to attend this event, watch for future announcements for when this event will be repeated in other metro areas of the nation.
Homeland Security Outlook in Partnership with Eric Holdeman & Associates is very proud to announce a regional School Safety Symposium to be held in Western Washington. This program is very unique in that it will provide school personnel, teachers, administrators, support staff and their first responder partners tools to help them build their school safety plans with practical advice and information from a variety of school safety experts who have real world school experience. This is the inaugural event that will be related in other metropolitan areas across the country.
The School Safety Symposium offers you the opportunity to learn from experts in the field of school safety and emergency management in order to gain the necessary information to prevent, respond and recover from any event. Each attendee will be able to hear presentations, ask questions and leave with a toolkit of materials to take home with you to jump-start your planning. It is highly recommended that, at a minimum, teams of two people attend so they can return home with a partner who understands the information and with whom joint planning can begin.
Topics to be discussed:
- Preparing For and Responding to an Active Shooter Situation
- Security Assessment: How vulnerable is your school to acts of violence?
- Parent-Student Reunification After a Crisis
- Newtown: Rebuilding Lives and Community After a School Shooting
- Effective Communication: From communicating with parents and staff to dealing with the media
- Identifying and Responding to Traditional and Cyber Bullying
- Identification of Drug Use Among Students
- Innovative Ideas to Take Back to Your School
Who Should Attend:
- School District Administrators
- School Principals
- Teachers
- School Safety Committee Staff
- Maintenance/facilities staff
- Concerned Parents and PTA Leaders
- Community Emergency Managers
- Law Enforcement
- Fire Services
- Emergency Medical Services
- Hospitals
- Public Health
- Utilities
- Local Government Leaders
- Volunteers
- Hospitals
The School Safety Symposium will also host an exhibition of 25 companies that have highly relevant solutions and past performances in school safety and security.
- $750 per position if booked before August 13th, 2013
- $1000 per position if booked after August 13th, 2013
Please click here for sponsorship and exhibition info or call Sareth Neak at 203-221-2664 or email at sarethn@hsoutlook.com
Registration:
- All access registration rates range from $195 to $295
- Please click here for Registration information or call us at 203-221-2664 or email us at customerservice@hsoutlook.com
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Over the years I've written a number of op-eds on a variety of topics. In doing so I always try to call attention to a topic that people are either not interested in (disasters until they happen) or the reasons for what has happened.
Here in the Puget Sound Region of the Pacific Northwest there has been an ongoing dialog about the appropriate use of surveillance cameras and drones or as some would call them Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAV). Read my op-ed in the Seattle Times on Drones and Surveillance Cameras
Read too the comments from a variety of responding individuals. Generally, they disagree with my premise that law enforcement needs these tools to be effective in the 21st Century.
Since there is a word count limit for things like op-eds there wasn't room to speak more to the benefits of cameras and drones to aid in a variety of other purposes besides law enforcement and countering criminal behavior. Being able to get a "birds eye" view of what is going on is of tremendous help in emergencies and disasters. This can be particularly true when the area to be viewed has contaminated gas or other materials that makes human entrance prohibited. Lost children and the elderly who walk away from their homes and get lost is another application that allows for the use of this technology.
It all boils down to who do you trust? There are many countries where when a police official knocks on your door you fear only the worst. It is a cultural issue that needs to be overcome when people immigrate to the United States. I fear we are "going backwards" on the trust issue to the point where some average citizens don't trust public officials, no matter what their function. I'm including in this list firefighters, building inspectors, licensing personnel and yes law enforcement.
Call me naive, but I trust people and agencies until they prove themselves untrustworthy. When we start to fear our own government and the people who serve you, it is time to look for somewhere in the world that you feel more comfortable living. The United States has never been a "perfect union." We have been and always will be a collection of people with differing beliefs and cultures. It is OK to disagree with one another, but lets agree that we won the lottery when we were born in the United States of America, a land of great opportunity and freedoms. People still want to move here because of what we have to offer. Let's celebrate that!
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