HOMELAND SECURITY: TRENDS IN AMERICA

BY ROGER L. KEMP, Ph.D.

Federal and state officials have made substantial progress in the field of homeland security since September 2001. City and county managers and their elected officials, however, are at the forefront of this movement. After all, local governments were the first responders to the terrorist acts of September 11. Although national and state leadership are essential, the future of homeland security will depend on preparedness initiatives at the local level. Local public officials have developed new emergency management practices, applied new computer software to this field, and have begun to modify local codes to enhance safeguards to protect citizens. All of these new measures fall into one or more of the four phases of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.

In less than two years, states have standardized many of their practices in emergency management for cities and counties within their respective boundaries. The national government has responded with a new agency, the Department of Homeland Security. As this department evolves, coordination among federal agencies in the area of homeland security will improve. Equally important, federal departments are initiating training programs to educate local officials in emergency management. Many of these state-of-the-art practices and trends are examined in this article. They are categorized by the four phases of emergency management. City and county managers throughout the nation should pay special attention to these evolving best practices, since the public not only expects but also demands that these managers take the steps necessary to safeguard their life and property during times of disaster, whether natural or man-made.

• Federal assistance programs. Numerous federal programs are available to assist local officials in the mitigation phase of their emergency management plans. Many of these training programs are available from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA); the U.S. Fire Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Department of Justice; and the Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense, and Energy. Officials should contact these agencies for details concerning their respective programs. Many of the programs are provided to local government officials at no charge or at a nominal cost. In many cases, they are listed on the agencies’ Web sites.
• U.S. Homeland Security advisory system. In 2002, Thomas Ridge, the director of the Office of Homeland Security (now the secretary of this new department), announced a national warning system for advising all levels of government—federal, state, and local—as well as the American public, of the possible risk of a terrorist attack. The five levels in this color-coded warning system are as follows: low (green), guarded (blue), elevated (yellow), high (orange), and severe (red). This national alerting system spells out various “protective measures” suited to each warning category. So far, the highest level of alert the nation has witnessed under this code model was “orange.” Many local fire stations and even fire departments lack a communications link such as the police department has on a national level.
• Threat analysis and assessment. To properly analyze and assess the threat level of potential terrorist acts by individuals or groups within their jurisdiction, city and county officials must work with the appropriate state and federal agencies. This is a two-way street: Communications and cooperation must go from the top down and from the bottom up. Public and private potential terrorist targets must be examined, analyzed, and ranked according to their likelihood of being targeted and then appropriate safeguards and security measures must be taken. This comprehensive approach to emergency management fits well with FEMA’s Integrated Emergency Management System (IEMS), which provides the necessary framework for an all-hazards approach to emergency preparedness. The more potential targets a community has, the more its public officials should rely on this model of threat analysis and assessment.
• Building design and physical structures to improve public safety. Certain types of construction are more likely to withstand a terrorist attack than others. Enhanced sprinkler systems and new fire-resistant roofing materials, for example, can reduce the hazard of fire.

MITIGATION

Legal limits on building heights and building setbacks can also lessen damage in an attack. Height limitation is not the main issue, however; beefing up existing buildings and building new buildings with construction that is more resistive to a bomb are key. Presently, we must seek ways to reduce the bomb blast and chemical threats in target buildings. These and other safety features should be incorporated into the design of new buildings as well. Physical structures also can be used to protect existing buildings. Although building security measures need to be increased, they must not hinder the rapid evacuation of the fully occupied building. The selected placement of steel and concrete barriers around public buildings is frequently used to restrict vehicular access. Fences, walls, and other protective encasements can easily be constructed. New types of devices and barriers that control access to public buildings, monuments, and parks are emerging in the marketplace.

• Municipal and county building codes. City and county building officials may want to update their development codes for certain types of buildings—public and private—to make them less vulnerable to terrorist attacks. The loss of life and property can be limited by retrofitting existing buildings or—sometimes a less-expensive option—building new structures that meet state-of-the-art safety and security criteria. Local government regulations should require the posting of exit signs, building evacuation routes, and other appropriate security and safety information in all public buildings for the safety of their citizens. City and county building codes should be updated to impose these same requirements on the owners of private buildings.
• Nonstructural measures to improve building safety. The use of police or security guards (depending on whether a building is public or private), metal detectors, and surveillance cameras can help protect building occupants and visitors by identifying possible threats. Police or security guards can inspect the personal belongings of people as they enter the premises. Existing labor agreements and possibly state laws will determine whether sworn police officers, civilian employees, or contract private security services can be used to provide this service. Building owners, public and private, owe this level of security to those citizens who work in and visit their buildings.
• Pedestrian and vehicular evacuation routes. To ensure that the public can be properly evacuated from buildings in an effective and timely manner, local public safety officials should prepare building evacuation plans and procedures. The safest and most expeditious exit routes from all buildings, especially those in high-rise areas, should be clearly explained. Occupants of buildings most vulnerable to a terrorist act may need specialized instructions in case they must be evacuated. Vehicular evacuation routes leading out of town from urban centers should also be identified and made available to the public. Depending on the type and size of a disaster, local officials may wish to issue a directive encouraging residents to evacuate their families to safer areas.

• Assignment of emergency management responsibilities. All departments and agencies should be assigned specific duties in case of an emergency or disaster, whether of a human or natural cause. The roles of public safety, health, and public works employees have been redefined and enhanced to improve the nation’s preparedness for a wide variety of possible terrorist acts. The proper roles for police and fire department personnel in a disaster must be clearly defined beforehand. In case of a haz-mat emergency, for example, it is common for police to secure the perimeter of the area while fire personnel deal with the hazardous material cleanup. Other departmental employees would be called as needed to respond to different facets of the emergency, also on an as-needed basis.
• Emergency plans and possible hazards. The emergency plans of cities and counties should include preparedness procedures for all types of likely disasters. These plans should detail the technical expertise that might be needed in a terrorist attack, the required resources, and the proper procedures for requesting assistance from neighboring jurisdictions as well as higher levels of government. Increasing emphasis must be placed on the interactions of local, state, and federal officials. Public officials in cities and counties with sites that might be the prime targets of terrorists, such as nuclear power plants and busy ports, should include these sites in local emergency plans as well as prepare for soft targets. The private sector should also be aware that in case of multiple attacks in various locations throughout the city, it may be on its own before help arrives. Multithreat preparation also needs to be addressed.
• Mutual-aid agreements. Fire departments typically have mutual-aid agreements with neighboring communities, but law enforcement, public works, and health departments are increasingly entering into these agreements as well. Mutual-aid agreements ensure a prompt response by departments and agencies from contiguous municipal and county governments. The goal is to provide a seamless response to an emergency once local resources have been exhausted. This seamless response must be formulated from the National Incident Man-agement System for a Unified Command Structure with all agencies onboard. Under these agreements, a local government does not need to seek formal approval to use services from another jurisdiction, since the provision of requested services is automatic. Since a terrorist act might affect more than one community, mutual-aid agreements should be made with all contiguous communities, as well as the county in which a town or city is located. Contiguous counties should also have mutual-aid agreements for these same reasons. Any county that borders another state line needs to have the two state offices of emergency management involved in this process.
• Simulated disaster exercises. When public officials revise their emergency management plans, they should periodically test them against reality by conducting simulated disaster-response exercises. Such exercises help ensure that local emergency plans hold up against reality. These exercises should also include state and federal agencies. Nongov-ernmental agencies from the nonprofit sector, such as the Red Cross, Salvation Army, hospitals, and other public-assistance organizations, should also be asked to participate. These exercises give local officials a chance to work the “bugs” out of their local emergency response plans and assist them in responding to possible actual emergency conditions. Such disaster exercises help improve local preparedness and assist public officials in limiting the loss of life and property during a real-life disaster.

PREPAREDNESS

Training for local government employees. Since the September 11 terrorist incidents, specialized training programs for public safety personnel and other local government employees in several areas relating to man-made disasters have become available.
They include stress management for public safety employees, managing fatalities, proper responses to weapons of mass destruction, enhanced intelligence and information networking, medical service readiness, and providing social services to disaster victims. Identification of hazardous materials and modern decontamination practices are new topics on the training agenda. Many of these training programs are free from state and federal government agencies.
• Use of the incident command system (ICS). FEMA recommends using the ICS when local governments respond to any type of emergency. This system of management best accommodates a response by multiple parties, including local, state, and federal agencies. It gives the responsibility for command to an on-site manager, who reports to the emergency operations center. The use of this emergency management process allows for the immediate coordination of services from numerous sources, including other levels of government. Local governments that use the ICS enhance their effectiveness, streamline their chain of command, and eliminate the possibility of duplication of services. State and federal agencies provide much needed and valuable training in the use of this state-of-the-art emergency management practice. The local governments who will be the first responders to an incident will probably be on their own for the first 12 to 24 hours; all need to be on the same page with ICS.
• Contributions and donations management. In large-scale man-made or natural disasters, private citizens, and local community organizations often step forward to help victims and their families. As the public response to the World Trade Center attack demonstrated, nonprofit organizations, as well as members of the public, are eager to donate goods and services and lend assistance to victims and their families following a disaster. Public officials can request specialized equipment or services if needed. Drop-off locations should be designated, and an accurate accounting should be kept of all groups and individuals who donate goods and services during and after an emergency. The collection of these contributions from the private and nonprofit sectors should be managed so it does not interfere with the response of local government emergency service personnel.
• Damage assessment practices. Damage assessment at the local level must be accurate and immediate, since assistance from higher levels of government depends on this information. Appropriate municipal and county officials must be trained in the details of this valuable emergency management function. In large jurisdictions, teams of employees are usually assigned to cover different neighborhoods, or areas, of a city or county after a disaster occurs. As a local government’s response unfolds, the information gathered on the damage must be continually verified and reassessed to ensure its accuracy. Procedures for proper documentation of the damage done to real property and the methods for determining the disaster’s entire financial magnitude, including the costs of the local government’s response, should be in place before a disaster strikes.
• Early-warning public notification systems. A key feature of a local government’s response to an emergency is prompt notification of the public. In case of a flood, for example, public officials may have several hours’ lead time in which to warn citizens. In the case of a terrorist act, however, the warning to the public must be as immediate as circumstances will allow. Reverse 911 notification systems are prompt and flexible enough to issue a warning to citizens on a block-by-block or neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. The traditional means of notifying citizens, such as the public media, may not be readily available because of the time of day or night an incident occurs. Citywide sirens (some have voice-over capability) can also be used to inform the public. Government-access cable television channels can also be used for this purpose but not as a primary source of notification, since this warning system does not reach all of the citizens in the community.
• Emergency shelters and assistance. A natural or man-made disaster, especially a carefully designed terrorist attack, could leave a large number of citizens without food, water, and shelter. Emergency shelters (beds and restrooms) and assistance (food, water, and first-aid stations) should be available immediately. The location and size of such shelters and the organizations that would provide them must be known in advance of an actual emergency. Public buildings are usually used for this purpose, with assistance provided by the Red Cross and Salvation Army. Municipal or county employees, depending on the state and its local forms of government, may provide health assistance. In case primary facilities are damaged, a comprehensive emergency operations plan should note the location of appropriate backup facilities should they be needed.
• Evacuation procedures and practices. In the case of an arson fire or bombing, people must be immediately evacuated from all impacted buildings and surrounding areas. Procedures should be in place for facilitating the smooth evacuation of large numbers of people in the shortest possible time. In the case of fire or the imminent collapse of a building, a prompt response would save many lives.

RESPONSE

Vehicles owned by the local government, such as buses and vans, should be used to facilitate an evacuation. The number of vehicles available, as well as issues relating to their accessibility, should be known in advance. Proper exit signs and evacuation routes should be conspicuously posted in all buildings, public and private. The location of safety equipment and first-aid supplies should also be known and posted before the incident.
• Geographic information systems. Computerized mapping using geographic information systems (GIS) can provide immediate assistance to local officials when responding to natural or man-made disasters. City and county officials should know the exact location of power grids, public utilities, public telephones, public open spaces, hospitals, natural amenities, and other useful information in advance. These locations should be on a public agency’s computer database. This is in addition to the usual information, such as the location of property lines and buildings. Staging areas, incident command posts, emergency shelters, designated medical facilities, and approved evacuation routes should also be plotted for city and county employees’ use when responding to emergencies. The use of GIS was critical in New York City’s response to the September 2001 terrorist attacks and helped police officers and firefighters limit the loss of life and property.
• Medical services and equipment. It is critical that the availability of all medical services and equipment be known in advance of an incident. The locations of hospitals, ambulance companies, and private medical providers—and the resources they can provide—must be included in emergency operations plans. Because primary facilities may be damaged during a disaster, backup medical facilities and services should also be known and determined in advance. Also needed are decontamination procedures that would be followed in a chemical or biological emergency. Public information must also be provided to relatives and friends of victims within a short time frame. Careful advanced planning in these crucial areas can lead to a timely and professional response by local government personnel.
• On-site command and control. The immediate on-site management of a disaster is essential. The on-site manager (IC) and command staff are responsible for coordinating the response, including their interaction with public officials from other agencies (e.g., city, county, state, federal, and nonprofit). The on-site command staff reports to the emergency operations center, which would relay incident information to the appropriate people, including elected officials and the news media. Actual responders (typically police and fire personnel) report their findings to the IC, who coordinates the immediate on-scene response. The locations of main command sites and backup locations should be determined on a neighborhood basis before an incident occurs. A unified command post should be located away from the incident area, and a command post should be established for the site. For large-scale incidents, sector command posts should be established. Divide all incident areas into IMS sectors A, B, C, and D. A site on which an act of terrorism has taken place should be treated as a crime scene. This requires extra security and investigative services on the part of police personnel.
• Public information and the news media. Although local and state news media pay attention to typical natural disasters at first, their interest, as well as that of the public, soon wanes. In the case of a man-made disaster, such as an act of terrorism, news media (print and broadcast) at all levels (local, state, and national) would likely have a keen interest in a local government’s response for some time. It is essential to have someone at the emergency operations center [public information officer (PIO)] knowledgeable about the event and the ongoing response. This person should also be available to the media. The media can help local government officials to issue warnings and evacuation notices to the public. The media should be kept away from the epicenter of a local disaster whenever possible. Representatives of the news media should not be allowed to get through the perimeter security of an incident. Police personnel must employ proper security measures to achieve this goal.
• Crime scene security. As noted above, man-made disasters such as terrorist acts are crimes, and the incident site should be treated as a crime scene. Evidence at the site must be secured, collected, and properly protected for future use in legal proceedings. This evidence may be used to prosecute the perpetrators at a later date, once the recovery phase of the emergency response has been completed. This means that public access to the site must be limited. Establish a perimeter fence with secured access control points. First responders must be trained by law enforcement personnel to identify and protect evidence at the disaster site. For this reason, debris removal must be undertaken under special and controlled circumstances. Depending on the size of a disaster, this process could take weeks, even months, to complete.
• Crisis counseling. During a prolonged incident as well as after the event, mental and medical monitoring are needed for public safety employees and citizens in general, who often suffer from a variety of stress-related symptoms, including anger, depression, headaches, and insomnia. Debriefing and counseling sessions by experienced counselors should take place as soon as possible. Psychologists, chaplains, family counselors, and mental health professionals typically provide these valuable services. Many employee assistance programs (EAPs) offer counseling services to city and county employees. If a jurisdiction does not have an EAP in place, it may need to hire trained specialists to provide post-disaster counseling services to employees and their families. Ideally, these services should be provided within 24 to 48 hours after the emergency.
• Disaster assistance to property owners and citizens. Public officials in a jurisdiction where a natural or man-made disaster occurs should immediately establish a clearinghouse to coordinate assistance to the victims and their families. FEMA, state governments, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and other nonprofit organizations frequently provide this type of assistance. By providing a centralized location for citizen information about assistance, city and county officials will be able to facilitate the process of restoring order after a disaster. It is incumbent on local officials to inform the public about the disaster assistance programs available to them, as well as to coordinate the services provided by these programs. Local government officials may wish to provide for “gap” coverage to property owners and citizens who were victims of a disaster until other programs “kick in.”
• Management of fatalities. The limited scope of most local disasters does not require extensive planning for the management of on-site fatalities. In the case of terrorist incidents, however, local government officials may need to arrange for temporary morgues, depending on the size of the incident. Local mortuaries should be put on alert to handle the additional deaths created by these types of emergencies. Procedures for properly notifying victims’ next of kin must be worked out in advance. Emergency operation plans must include a section pertaining to the management of on-site fatalities. It is prudent to include this information in all local emergency response plans, regardless of the size of the jurisdiction. Resources for management of fatalities are an integral part of the recovery phase of an agency’s emergency response.
• Rebuilding private structures and spaces. Typically, after a natural disaster, the owners of damaged property will file a claim with their insurance company to collect for damages. Once the monetary settlement is received, property owners can begin the process of reconstruction. In the case of a terrorist attack that causes widespread damage, the local government has an important role to play in this rebuilding process.

RECOVERY

Local officials must notify all owners of damaged property and ask them to clear their land, ensure it is free of hazards, properly fence it for public safety purposes, and ultimately reconstruct the improvements. In the interest of public safety, local government officials may perform some of these tasks. In this case, permission should be obtained from the property owners involved. Public officials may seek title to impacted private properties where the aggregation of individual ownerships best serves the public’s interest. This especially holds true if local owners of commercial and residential properties do not want to rebuild in the disaster area.
• Restoration of public infrastructure and open spaces. After a disaster, citizens expect their local government officials to restore the public infrastructure (for example, sewer and water lines, electricity, roadways, sidewalks, and public transit) and public open spaces (parks, playgrounds, walkways, bikeways, trails, beach access, and waterways, to name a few) in a timely manner. Just as the public sector must hold citizens accountable for the restoration of their private property, citizens should hold their local government officials accountable for the timely restoration of all public property. City and county officials should take prompt action to gain the trust of citizens in this regard. The bottom line is that improvements in and around the disaster area, particularly public amenities, should be restored as soon as possible following a terrorist incident.

After the terrorist attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon in September 2001 and the hijacking that led to the plane crash in rural Pennsylvania, the federal government coined the phrase “homeland security” to describe the actions of all levels of government to protect citizens from future acts of violence by terrorists. Although the emergency management practices and techniques that evolve during the coming years will be different from the civil defense measures of the past, the goal of these initiatives is still the same: to minimize the loss of life and property. This goal requires the implementation of policies and the testing of procedures in each of the four phases of emergency management. FEMA’s all-hazards approach to emergency management enables local government officials to prepare comprehensive plans that encompass all potential hazards, natural and man-made. The field of emergency management has gone full circle in the past half century. External threats have focused the attention of emergency planners on man-made disasters. At the same time, plans to cope with natural disasters must continue.

Local government officials are taking the dangers posed by a potential terrorist attack seriously and have implemented the state-of-the-art practices examined in this article since September 2001. In the early 21st century, the evolving discipline of emergency management is in the spotlight. It is rapidly expanding in new directions in response to external threats to our nation’s many cities and counties. New emergency management practices will be developed and tested at all levels of government during the coming years. The trends presented in this article are at the promising forefront of these new developments. All of the practices examined represent the continued goal of emergency management—to limit the loss of life and property of citizens during a disaster.

This article, based on national research, is adapted from the chapter “The Future of Homeland Security,” by Roger L. Kemp, in the new book Homeland Security: Best Practices for Local Government, edited by Roger L. Kemp (Washington, D.C.: International City/County Management Association, 2003).

ROGER L. KEMP, Ph.D., has served as city manager on the West and East Coasts and is presently city manager of Meriden, Connecticut. He has a Ph.D. in public administration and is a graduate of the Program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at Harvard University. He has written and edited many books on various topics related to local governments.