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INTRODUCTION TO EMERGENCY OPERATIONS; TYPES OF EMERGENCIES AND DISASTERS

Case Assignment

You have been assigned by the City Manager to develop an Emergency Management Plan for the city. Although you have experience in emergency response, this is the first time that you are involved in the planning process. You read that effective emergency planning begins with:

• Defining an emergency in terms relevant to the organization doing the planning.
• Establishing an organization with specific tasks to function immediately before, during, and after an emergency.
• Establishing a method for utilizing resources and for obtaining additional resources during the emergency.
• Providing a recognizable means of moving from normal operations into and out of the emergency mode of operation.

Although the above steps to develop an effective emergency plan appear to be reasonable and necessary, you have doubts about which item is most important in the initial planning stages. You agree that defining an emergency in terms relevant to the city is important; however, you believe that the city already has an organization with specific tasks to perform immediately before, during, and after an emergency. That organization is the city’s police department.

Question 1: Do you concur with the opinion that the city’s police department should be the lead organization for disaster management in a typical city in the United States? State your position and justify it in terms of authority, responsibility, and the organizational position the police department must assume in order to be effective.

Question 2: Which of the above-stated steps to develop an effective emergency plan do you believe would be well outside of the scope of duties assigned to the police department? Justify your response.

Regardless of the type of crisis, there are a series of common requirements that must be taken into account for an organization to be successful when a critical incident occurs. These include:

• Deciding policy
• Assessing threat
• Identifying resources
• Selecting crisis team personnel
• Locating the crisis management center
• Equipping the crisis center
• Training crisis team personnel
• Testing contingency plans and emergency procedures

The city’s police chief recently appeared before city council and presented a strong recommendation that a specific organization with a well-defined line of authority for planning, mitigating, and responding to emergencies and disasters be established. The police chief justified this position with the above-stated common requirements that must be considered for an organization to be successful when an emergency occurs.

Question 3: Which of the above-stated requirements should involve participation and approval well beyond the authority usually granted to a department head such as the police chief? Justify your response.

Question 4: Which of the above-stated requirements do you consider to be critical to the effective development and implementation of a disaster/emergency planning and coordination program/unit in the city? Which of the above-stated requirements do you consider to be rather unimportant or insignificant, if any, to the success and effectiveness of the city’s Emergency Management Plan? Justify your response to both questions.

Assignment Expectations

Length: This Case Assignment should be at least 3-5 pages not counting the title page and references.

References: At least two references should be included from academic sources (e.g., peer-reviewed journal articles). Required readings are included. Quoted material should not exceed 10% of the total paper (since the focus of these assignments is critical thinking). Use your own words and build on the ideas of others. When material is copied verbatim from external sources, it MUST be enclosed in quotes. The references should be cited within the text and listed at the end of the assignment in the References section (preferably in APA format).

Organization: Subheadings should be used to organize your paper according to question.

Grammar and Spelling: While no points are deducted for minor errors, assignments are expected to adhere to standard guidelines of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence syntax. Points may be deducted if grammar and spelling impact clarity.