AMU Emergency Management Fire & EMS Public Safety

Student Project: Revise City’s Emergency Management Plans

By Joseph Neiberger, alumni, Public Administration from American Public University

One of the newest demands for emergency management agencies is the expectation of quick, relevant and effective communications during a crisis. Traditionally, emergency management agencies have relied on mass communication channels such as the Emergency Alert System (EAS), which is broadcast over the radio and television, as a large part of their emergency management plans. More recently, emergency management offices have adopted mass text messaging or reverse 9-1-1 phone call systems that deliver details about threatening conditions.

While these systems are all used — and remain quite effective — emergency management agencies must also embrace new and growing communication channels, primarily social media platforms. Social media, sometimes referred to as Web 2.0, includes popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Social Media’s Use in Emergency Management Plans

One beneficial aspect of social media in emergency management plans is the ability to exchange information from one user to another quickly and easily. Sharing information using social media has an inherent synergy in that one user’s post on another’s page is then shared with all affiliated followers. This supports the exponential spread of important information during threatening situations. When a municipality establishes a social media presence for such important sharing, it creates an educated community and promotes a timely response to issues. In addition, such social media accounts also allow emergency management agencies to receive reports and information directly from those experiencing the situation.

Yet many emergency management agencies remain hesitant to embrace such technology. Industry best practices are still being determined; many agencies continue to work on developing policies and procedures for how to use such accounts.

[Related: The Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media in Emergency Services]

For my final thesis project as part of my graduate degree in Public Administration with a concentration in Emergency and Disaster Management from American Public University, I decided to evaluate my local emergency management agency’s use of social media. Manassas Park, Virginia currently does not use social media to specifically support its emergency management plans. As a result, I decided to develop a communication plan that includes the adoption and use of social media in line with modern emergency management plans and principles.

I started by collecting data about industry best practices to determine what platforms the agency should adopt for its emergency management plans. The four research questions I used were:

  1. What are the communication priorities of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the Incident Command Structure (ICS)?
  2. What are the social media trends in emergency communications?
  3. What communication needs should be addressed with the revised communication plan?
  4. What social media platforms can be used to support those identified communication needs?

To gather this information, I conducted face-to-face interviews with the several of the city’s primary emergency management officials. All interviewed expressed a desire to expand emergency management plans to include social media. However, all also expressed concerns about the additional impact associated with managing the message through social media, while also trying to manage a disaster at the same time. Through the literature research, I learned that the structure of the traditional NIMS system does allow for the adoption of social media tools.

After reading about agencies that had successfully applied social media to help manage a disaster event, it was clear that an agency must develop a dynamic team of personnel to manage the bi-directional information. The agency must also develop policies and procedures so information sent through the platform is consistent in its frequency. Practices such as these will help assure that citizens pay attention to the information when posted. It is also important to balance the severity of the message so citizens know how to respond appropriately to the information being communicated.

Based on this action-based research, I recommended the following communication standard operating procedure (SOP) be adopted into the city’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP).

Establishing Communication Purposes

An essential element of emergency preparedness is the sharing of information with, and gathering of information from, citizens. In meeting the needs and expectations of the public, agencies must also assure the communication tools being used also support the priorities of the crews on the front lines (Crowe, 2010a; Hughes & Palen, 2012). How those communications are managed is spelled out in the EOP. Quite simply, an EOP is an adopted document that outlines how a municipality plans to operate during an emergency, disaster or major event.

There are several key goals for information distribution during such an incident:

  • The governing body is expected to make statements and share information that can reassure their constituency that a situation is being handled (Hughes A. L., 2014).
  • The emergency responders, who have the same priority as the governing body, may need to communicate information (e.g. where citizens can and cannot go to assure they are protected from the events occurring).
  • Alternatively, emergency management officials may need to provide guidance that suggests the taking of precautions that will protect their property.
  • Citizens may require information on procedural considerations and directions for how to get the help they need following a significant event.

Manassas’ current EOP (2012) establishes seven methods of communicating with the public:

  1. The Emergency Alert System (EAS)
  2. The emergency override on the cable television system
  3. Government access to bulletin boards
  4. Reverse 9-1-1 calls to all landline phones within the city
  5. The municipal website
  6. Regional Incident Communications and Coordination System (RICCS), which is where the availability of hospital resources is maintained in the support of potential mass casualty incidents
  7. The CMP Citizen’s Warning System (text messaging)

To accomplish the defined needs of emergency communication, I developed a tiered system of emergency information priority: the Threat Based Communication Matrix (Table 1). That prioritization level corresponds to information platforms allowing the sender and receiver to recognize associated importance levels of specific communication methods.

Table 1: Threat Based Communication Matrix 

emergency management plans

Communication Infrastructure

The tight and well-defined communication model of first responders, as delineated by the National Incident Management System (NIMS) is not, currently, flexible enough to allow for such a dynamic and interactive communication model (White, 2012). Adding social media to the communications toolbox adds this flexibility. With a little care, a plan can be devised that uses the NIMS common national terminology and the flexibility of social media.

Evolution of Communication

As community members engage with public safety agencies in a crisis, the people on the streets become “the primary problem solvers” (The National Academies, 2012, p. 137). They can be mobilized to assist with mitigation, response or recovery. Integrating them into emergency management plans can help agencies manage the flow of information (The National Academies, 2012). If done properly, this information exchange can be both modern and adaptive to many situations (Hughes & Palen, 2012). “The mission of an effective disaster communications strategy is to provide timely and accurate information to the public” (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2014, p. 140). Letting the public provide timely and accurate information to response agencies can boost community resilience.

Evolving Role of the PIO

One interesting shift for agencies is the role of the public information officer (PIO). Hughes & Palen (2012) note that adopting social media shifts the PIO’s responsibility from gatekeeper to that of translator. One growing best practice is to develop a team, with members not working within the same geographically affected area, to support the PIO by monitoring social media and identifying trends (Steen, 2015). The information gathered can be prioritized, highlighted and then shared with the PIO.

[Related: Strategies for a PIO to Share Information in Times of Crisis]

Sheil, Violanti & Slusarski (2011) define this process as curation: “the maintenance and appraisal of digital information over its entire life cycle.” Curation requires having personnel who are capable of viewing, categorizing, and responding to information gathered regardless of the conduit through which the information came.

Establish a Communications Staff

The establishment of a communications staff is an essential element for emergency management plans. However, not all agencies have the necessary staff to dedicate to both emergency communication and disaster management (Haddow, Bullock, & Coppola, 2014). To solve this, the City of Manassas Park should partner with an information team in another city — outside of the region. The benefits would be reciprocated with the partner community. Each agency’s staff would be made available to the other for social media monitoring in the support of disaster management. The personnel costs would be the responsibility of the employing agency, with the expectation that this would balance out as each agency leaned upon the other throughout the year. These pre-designated teams would have the ability to log into and monitor each other’s social media pages during an emergency. Such teams have been labeled Virtual Operational Support Teams (VOST) (Sheil, Violanti, & Slusarski, 2011). The utilization of VOST can alleviate some of the demands associated with establishing a dedicated communications staff, which may be logistically difficult and cost prohibitive.

Training Personnel

It is critical that communication teams practice using these systems prior to an actual emergency. The management of information during non-emergencies, including predictable and preplanned events, can help the team get experience cultivating and sharing information. Being familiar and proficient with these systems will assist with handling timely information during a significant event. Failure to train appropriately with the designated personnel and the associated procedures can reduce the efficacy of information management during real-time operations.

Application of Social Media with Traditional Systems

The Threat Based Communication Matrix found in Table 1 reflects the recommended varying levels of importance for a message to be sent through correlating distribution platforms. This is a progressive structure, so if a message is determined to contain a “warning,” all communication platforms up to that level would carry the information. It is fundamental that the greater the risk associated with the information being shared requires more platforms across which the information is distributed. This will help support the concept of reaching the most citizens during significant events.

This structure integrates traditional communication methods, like television and radio, with newer channels such as social media. Balancing the use of all these communication platforms helps ensure that Manassas Park is reaching all generations within its community through its emergency management plans. By only relying on this information in accordance with the communication matrix, the city minimizes the potential numbing effect that may result from a constant bombardment of general information through regular use of all communication channels.

[Related: Strategies for Working with the Mass Media During Emergencies]

Implementing Revised Emergency Management Plans

Manassas Park’s EOP is scheduled for a review and update this year. As noted by the mayor (2016), the upcoming revision will be an opportunity to develop a plan that will allow the city to be better prepared to communicate with multiple generations, in multiple languages, and across jurisdictional boundaries.

My proposed plan follows the NIMS principles, meets the needs of the EOP communication model, and incorporates the real ways citizens communicate. Using my suggested changes, Manassas Park can better communicate with the public on matters of personal safety.

emergency management plansAbout the Author: Joseph Neiberger recently graduated with a master’s degree in Public Administration from American Public University. Joe serves as a Battalion Chief in the Fire Rescue Department in the city of Manassas Park, Virginia.

 

 

Works Cited

Crowe, A. (2010a). The elephant in the JIC: The fundamental flaw of emergency public information within the NIMS framework. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Vol. 7, no. 1, Article 10.

Crowe, A. (2010b). The social media manifesto: A comprehensive review of the impact of social media on emergency management. Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, Vol. 5, no. 1, pp 49-420.

(2012). EOP. Fairfax, VA: Dewberry.

FEMA. (2008). National Incident Management System. Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security.

Haddow, G. D., Bullock, J. A., & Coppola, D. P. (2014). Introduction to Emergency Management, Fifth Edition. Waltham, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Hughes, A. L. (2014). Participatory design for the social media needs of emergency public information officers. Retrieved from iscram.org: http://live.iscram.org/legacy/ISCRAM2014/papers/p90.pdf.

Hughes, A. L., & Palen, L. (2012). The evolving role of the public information officer: an examination of social media in emergency management. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Vol. 9, no. 1, Article 22.

Mayor. (2016, 02 13). Social media communications model: Interview.

Sheil, A., Violanti, M. T., & Slusarski, K. (2011). Explaining attitudes toward and experiences with social media among public information officers through adaptive structuration theory. Communications of the IIMA, 11(4): 51-72.

Steen, M. (2015). The social media filters. Emergency Management, pp. 34-37.

The National Academies. (2012). Disaster resilience: A national imperative. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.

White, C. M. (2012). Social media, crisis communication, and emergency management. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Leischen Kranick is a Managing Editor at AMU Edge. She has 15 years of experience writing articles and producing podcasts on topics relevant to law enforcement, fire services, emergency management, private security, and national security.

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