Firefighters Support Foundation Mass Violence Post-Response Operations -------- Joint-Agency Response Efforts Following Active Assailant/Active Shooter

Firefighters Support Firefighters Support

FoundationFoundationMass Violence Post-Response

Operations--------

Joint-Agency Response Efforts Following Active Assailant/Active

Shooter Incidents v1.0

About FSF

The Firefighters Support Foundation is a 501c3 non-profit organization whose primary mission is to develop, produce and distribute training programs to firefighters and first responders. All of our programs are distributed free of charge.

2Joint-Agency Response Efforts Following Active Assailant/Active Shooter Incidents

Permission

Permission is granted to reproduce or distribute this material so long as the

Firefighters Support Foundation is credited as the source


Accompanying Video

This PowerPoint presentation accompanies the video presentation of the same title.


Presenter


Introduction

• We have learned that a rapid, safe and successful response to active shooter/active assailant incidents requires planning, training and preparation

• These complex and demanding incidents may be well beyond the traditional training and experience of the majority of first responders and public safety agencies

• Continuing mass violence incidents have demonstrated the need to prepare local, regional, state, federal and other agencies to plan for and respond to these critical incidents

• These incidents are fast-moving, volatile and complex

Joint-Agency Response Efforts Following Active Assailant/Active Shooter Incidents 6

Introduction

• We have unfortunately witnessed a growing frequency of mass violence incidents in the past several years

• A rigid, traditional response guideline or procedures is not and will not be appropriate for future active shooter/active assailant incidents

• Majority of these incidents can mirror military combat situations so one option is to look to our military colleagues for ideas on how they respond to similar events including training, planning, squad and team tactics, etc.


Course Goal

• To prepare public safety officials, emergency managers and first responders with some basic tools and information needed to develop or assess a multi-agency mass violence response plan

• Do you even have a plan or even a concept?

• This planning process needs to be a joint fire, EMS, law enforcement and emergency management effort to ensure success


Mass Violence

• The active assailant/active shooter threat continues to be a current and emerging threat

• We have dedicated a lot of training for WMD over the past 20 years BUT both the both threat and the practice are evolving

• Majority of all attacks in the United States utilize shootings and explosives


Pre-Incident PlanningCritical agencies meet:

– Law Enforcement Agencies– Fire Departments– Emergency Medical Services (EMS)– Hospitals – 911/Communication Centers– Emergency Management– Schools/Colleges– Key Partners

Target Identification:– Critical Infrastructure– Government (Local, State and Federal)– High Profile or Controversial Businesses or Institutions– Large Crowds/Venues


Pre-Incident Planning (2)

• Law Enforcement, Fire, EMS, Emergency Management and other officials all share some of the same priorities during a mass violence incident (life safety and incident stabilization)

• Interagency cooperation for an active assailant/active shooter incident should be paramount

• These mass violence incidents can and have occurred in metro, urban, suburban and rural settings


Pre-Incident Planning (3)

• Preparation is the key to a mass violence incidents and that includes a clear idea of your actions before the incident occurs

• The first step in your preparation is a review of your agencies guidelines and procedures when responding to a mass violence incident of any kind or type

• As with any multi-hazard assessment and planning process it is critical to do a multi-agency exercise (tabletop or functional) to bring all the key agencies together and rehearse the plan once it has been completed


Emergency Operations Plan

• Each community or jurisdiction needs to have a detailed and comprehensive all-hazard plan or emergency operations plan (EOP)

• These plans provide the community wide framework in responding to any large scale incident or disaster

• According to FEMA “It is unlikely that any community can “It is unlikely that any community can anticipate specific AS/MCI (active shooter/mass casualty incident) anticipate specific AS/MCI (active shooter/mass casualty incident) scenarios they may experience, but it is possible to develop a scenarios they may experience, but it is possible to develop a generic plan that provides a model to apply in almost every generic plan that provides a model to apply in almost every situation that arises”situation that arises”


Emergency Operations Plan

• Prevent, prepare for, respond to, recover from local disasters, and ensure a coordinated and organized response to those hazards

• Provides general guidance for EM activities, and set forth the responsibilities of local governments and support organizations for emergency operations in emergencies or disasters

• Just as terrorism was added to emergency operation plans mass violence/active shooter materials can be added as the general framework for a community


Incident Command System

• It is critical that the Incident Command System (ICS) should be the command and control system implemented for all mass violence incidents

• The impact of well-deployed and practiced use of the ICS among providers who are likely to respond together cannot be overstated

• Unified Command (UC) must be understood and practiced by all responders for successful command and control


Unified Command

• Each mass violence incident is a primary LE event but requires immediate coordination between the LE on-scene commanders and the fire/rescue/EMS on-scene commanders

• UC provides the proper vehicle for command and control of mass violence incidents so responders should establish Unified Command and a Command Post (CP) as soon as possible

• A well established incident command system (ICS) deployed during the first few minutes of a chaotic mass violence incident will help you successfully manage the incident for the next few hours, days and even weeks


Unified Command (2)

• Be realistic about ICS, not building a 20 page Incident Action Plan or 30 box organizational chart in the first 30 minutes

• But over the next few hours and days it will be essential to assign roles and responsibilities

• A shared understanding of priorities and restrictions• A single set of incident objectives• Collaborative strategies• Improved internal and external information flow• Less duplication of efforts• Better resources utilization• Media, Media, Media


Unified Command (3)

• A single integrated incident organization• Co-located (shared) facilities (CP, Staging, etc.) • One set of incident objectives, single planning process,

and Incident Action Plan (IAP) once that develops• Coordinated process for resource ordering• May be the one way to successfully manage these type

of fast moving incidents with multiple incidents• Can be a struggle to establish unified command

initially


Unified Command (4)• Expensive mobile command posts are a nice tool to have and may be

on scene for days BUT:

• Past active shooter incidents have shown that having multiple mobile command buses on scene is not an effective tool and causes additional confusion and miscommunications

• If using buses, assign a bus for unified command and assign roles to each subsequent bus

• Insufficient representation of key agencies in command post and people leaving has also been identified as a major issue


Command Post Operations

• According to the Hartford ConsensusHartford Consensus: “Optimal outcomes depend on communication between public safety responders. The response to an active shooter event is a continuum that requires coordination between law enforcement and the medical/evacuation providers”

• The only way this can happen is rapidly establishing a face-to-face unified command (UC) in these fast moving and chaotic situations


Command Post Operations (2) • Initial units may establish a forward command post (CP) as the initial location

(may not be suitable for ongoing or larger command post operations)

• The unified incident command team may set up the command post in a more advantageous location for overall command and control of the incident as it grows in size, scope and scale

• Some agencies may refer to this as a tactical operations center (TOC) for initial units or internal/hot-zone operations. This is separate from the larger scene command post (CP)

• These Incident Command System tools utilized will depend on the incident, resources and location


Victim Accounting

• Must account for victims on the scene, injuries, deaths, those who may be lock-downed, relocated to safer or reunion areas, and those transported to medical or other facilities

• During a school shooting it is essential that every child in the school is accounted for and this can take some time

• This takes resources, and can take hours to identify and locate every child or adult who has evacuated, is locked-down or who is relocated to a safer area


Secured/Cleared

• The location where the mass violence incident occurred will need to be “secured”

• While “clearing” will take less than one minute per room with a quick sweep

• ”Securing” is a lengthy slow, methodical process that can take hours or even days and lots of resources

• You are checking for additional victims, explosives, & hazmat, using K9, pole cams, etc.


Multiple Scenes

• During an active shooter/mass violence incident you may end up with multiple, complex scenes to manage

• This will require the Incident Command System (ICS) to manage and coordinate

• These scenes could include the scene of the attack, shooters residence, shooters vehicle, hospitals, family assistance center, reunification centers for schools, etc.


Complex Attacks

• Incident complexity continues to grow

• Shooters are enhancing their attacks with “Asymmetric Warfare” tactics and weapons which can make the attack similar to a terrorist attack or military operation

• These can include: body armor, automatic weapons, homemade explosives, deploying smoke and gas, barricades, etc.


Complex Attacks (2)

• The term “active assailant” is replacing active shooter as some of these attackers use weapons besides a firearms

• These weapons of choice can be knives, arson/incendiary attack, chemicals, homemade explosives (HME), vehicle attacks or combination of these or others

• Several recent active shooter/active assailant incidents have included the shooter going mobile on foot or in a vehicle and attacking different


Complex Attacks (3)• It is important for potential Incident Commanders to recognize that

these incidents can require hundreds of responders and last for days

• Most active shooter/active assailant attacks are over in 4 to 10 minutes but the response can take multiple operational periods

• This requires utilizing the Incident Command System (ICS) using extensive command and control efforts via multiple shifts

• You will be integrating multiple local, regional, state and federal agencies


Major/Complex Incidents

FEMA has a definition of a major/complex incident :• Involves multiple jurisdictions and/or agencies• May involve multiple victims with injuries or fatalities• Involves complex management and communication issues• Requires experienced, highly qualified supervisory personnel• Require numerous tactical and support resources• Results in psychological threat/trauma• Spans multiple operational periods (days, weeks, months)• Requires extensive post-incident recovery efforts• Draws national media interest


Hospitals • Comms centers should alert area hospitals as soon as a possible that a “mass

violence incident” has been identified to give these facilities time to prepare, muster resources and activate their internal “disaster mode”

• Minor injured patients may directly self-transport to nearby local hospitals, thus arriving and creating emergency department crowding before the transportation of the more severely injured

• Dumping all patients at one or two hospitals could be moving the disaster from the scene to the hospitals

• Command Post (CP) may ask for activation of the communities Multiple Casualty Incident (MCI) Plan to manage the injured depending on numbers


Staging Area • Assign a Staging Officer as soon as possible -- do not wait until there

are 100 officers or firefighters on scene as it will be difficult to play “catch up”

• Having a staging area and staging officer will greatly assist the command post with assigning and ordering resources

• Staging area needs to be out of the danger area, and at a location that has enough room and easy access

• Once established a secure staging area can be used for the duration of the incident


Staging Area (2)

• It is important to have only one staging area if possible

• There is no operational need for separate staging areas for law enforcement and Fire/EMS

• In past active shooter/mass violence incidents, multiple staging areas , if established, has led to confusion and communication issues


Emergency Operations Center

Community EOC should be activated as soon as possible for long term response, recovery, management, investigative and support efforts

EOC activated for some of the following reasons: •Resources required beyond local capabilities•The emergency is of long duration•Multiple agency/jurisdictional involvement•Unique or emerging problem(s) may require policy decisions•A local State of Emergency is declared


Prepare for:


• Elected Officials• Appointed Officials• Fire Services• Law Enforcement• Emergency Medical

Services• Public Works• Public Information• Inspections

• Social Services• Animal Control• Hospitals• Finance• American Red Cross• Salvation Army• Transit Authority• Specialized Resources• Business/Industry

Joint Information Center • A JIC should be established involving all key agencies and players to manage

the local and national media efforts

• Each active shooter/mass violence incident is conducted real time under intense news and social media scrutiny and public interest

• These large scale or extended events may necessitate the use of a joint information system

• This should include all key response agencies and “target location” representative such as school system rep, college rep or business spokesperson


Joint Information Center (2)

• Media may appear quickly and may aggressively attempt to enter the incident area, command post (CP)or other places to obtain direct surveillance and communications with survivors, family members and/or responders

• If you have not established a PIO very quickly distraught family members or neighbors may become your incident spokespersons


Joint Information Center (3)

• PIO must have plans for media announcements regarding a staging area for parents and relatives of victims, especially in educational settings

• In these incidents, the scene can be quickly inundated with parents, friends and bystanders

• Considerations should be given to assigning liaison officers to support families of casualties in handling media requests


Response of a Lifetime

• Your “response of a lifetime” could be the “report of a lifetime” for the media

• There will be requests for dozens of interviews coming very quickly

• Press statements and information should come from the unified command via the PIO/JIC


Response of a Lifetime (2)

• Initial reports from the media will be incorrect and even farfetched

• PIO is non-stop, 24/7 effort on a critical incident

• Will need to provide more than 1 or 2 briefs a day

• Unified Command or EOC needs to consider a social media team to “put the message out”


Family Assistance Centers • A FAC may need to be established near the site if possible to

communicate with family members of victims, injured and fatalities

• Could be another school system facility, college facility or hotel location

• Family assistance center plans includes custodial care, reunification, guardianship, accountability, mortuary service planning, and victim tracking

• “Eyes of the world” on your response from notification until funerals and beyond (take care of vicitms)(take care of vicitms)


Family Assistance Center (2)

• Mass violence incidents may require facilities where outside persons such as investigators, detectives, clergy or counselors will interact with the “surviving victim population”

• This may also be the location where death notifications are provided to victims family members if time permits

• Try to avoid death notifications in front of public and media


Family Assistance Center (3)

• FAC should be readily identifiable, large enough to hold and administratively process surviving victim population as they are released to families, make referrals to post-incident counseling services, and have adequate traffic flow (buses may be used in large incidents) and parking

• These locations are not open to the general public or media and will require law enforcement security


Post-Incident/Demobilization• While stand down is an appropriate time to relax it also is the best

time to capture staff recollections of specific events that may not have been well documented

• Obtain responder reports, missions and tasks performed

• This is also the time to account for equipment, personnel, pack gear, complete records, and release staff back to duty or home

• A demobilization plan will include responder information regarding debriefs, stress management briefings, and family support information


CISM/CISD Efforts• CISM/CISD efforts should be considered for all victims and

responders

• Only use trained personnel for these activities and never combine responder and victims CISM/CISD efforts

• Mental and physical health for responders remains a tactical consideration throughout the incident

• It is possible that some of the responders know the aggressors and/or victims and this could lead to serious issues and complications


Medical Examiner Operations

• Human Remains Recovery (Multi-Agency)• Morgue Services (Multi-Agency)• Family Assistance Centers (Multi-Agency)• Victim Assistance Teams (Multi-Agency) • Media/Joint Information Center (Multi-Agency)• Vital Records• Funeral Home Activities• Volunteers (Multi-Agency)• CISM/CISD (Multi-Agency)


ICS Resources

• Use available NO COST resources

• Continue with FEMA ICS 100 & 200 classes for ALLALL responders, classes are more effective than on-line sessions

• Street supervisors of all ranks should take the ICS 300 & 400 classes to give them a better idea on how to manage and plan for large, more complex incidents and events

• Work with your local and state regional ICS instructors to develop your own workshops on mass violence/active assailant incidents


Crisis Planning 101 • Contact your County Emergency Management Office or Emergency

Services Office if not engaged in active shooter/mass violence efforts

• Be familiar with your jurisdictions all-hazards plan/emergency operations plan

• ICS, ICS, ICS, ICS

• Participate in “active shooter/active assailant” drills and exercises including tabletops, functional and full scale

• Mass violence/active shooter incident specific training & exercises

• Trained and experienced “team” works better than the best written plans


References

• USFA – Fire/Emergency Medical Services Department Operational Considerations and Guide for Active Shooter and Mass Casualty Incidents

• IAFF – Position Statement: Active Shooter Events• C-TECC – Evolution and Application of TCCC Guidelines

to Civilian High Threat Medicine• Improving Survival from Active Shooter Events: The

Hartford Consensus


Firefighter Support Foundation

Additional mass violence/active shooters resources available from the Firefighters Support Foundation:•Active Shooters: Rapid Treatment Model

•Terrorism Response Preparedness and Operations for Mid- and Small-Size Public Safety Agencies


BE SAFE!BE SAFE!


http://photohome.com/pictures/flag-pictures/american-flag-2a.jpg

Documents

Firefighters Support Foundation Mass Violence Post-Response Operations -------- Joint-Agency Response Efforts Following Active Assailant/Active Shooter