PRIORITIES DURING ACTIVE SHOOTER SITUATION TOP 10 COMMUNICATION

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1 TOP 10 COMMUNICATION PRIORITIES DURING ACTIVE SHOOTER SITUATION Authored by Robert C. Chandler. PHD Director of Education - VOLO

2 Abstract One of the more sobering aspects of crisis management and emergency response preparedness are scenarios involving active shooters, mass murder, mass shootings and violent acts unleashed in a workplace, school or public place. Planning and preparedness for these horrific events is a grim chore, as even for elementary schools, houses of worship, civic centers, high education campuses, shopping centers, malls, retail stores, heath care facilities, manufacturing and post offices are potential violent crime scenes. This threat is a serious issue which demands due diligence. Among the preparedness priorities should include enhancing prevention measures and response planning. However, one of the most critical aspects that can save lives and mitigate the horror of such atrocities is effective emergency communication. Rapid, accurate and successful warning and notification messages can make a critical difference in outcomes. Furthermore, sustained effective communication can minimize confusion, coordinate response, sustain control and aid in holistic recovery from such attacks. To enhance success, the combination of effective tools and technology used in conjunction with understanding the human factors communication challenges can equip communicators with potent and powerful resources to aid in the management of active shooter events. Introduction: Active Shooter According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an active shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area, space, campus or building. Recent active shooter incidents have underscored the reality that such events can occur in any place where there are people gathered. These include schools, workplaces, houses of worship, transportation centers, civic centers, sports and recreation locations, retail and shopping centers, post offices, businesses and workplaces as well as other public gathering sites, and event entire communities. While the motives for these rampages can vary widely, diligent planning and preparedness for these horrific events is an essential but grim chore. Preparing to mitigate and respond rapidly to active shooter situations is a serious issue that demands due diligence in every industry, business and public/private sectors. Active Shooter Person who seeks to kill or injury multiple people in a bounded space or situation Sudden rapid onset often random pattern There is no single or universal profile for an active shooter Motives are Usually unknown and the specific event is unpredictable Events are statistically more likely to occurring during business/school hours of the day

3 Active Shooter Events (ASE) are Increasing in Frequency The frequency of active shooter events (ASE) has been increasing in recent years. According to an FBI study, the number of Active Shooter Event (ASE) incidents in which a shooter opens fire on a crowd of people more than doubled over the past seven years compared with the previous seven. The Federal Bureau of Investigation analyzed 160 "active shooter" incidents from 2000 through 2013 and found an average of six incidents per year from 2000 through The number rose to 16 incidents annually in the past seven years. According to the FBI study, trend line shows a definite increase in ASE over the past 12 years. In fact, the number of events drastically increased following The rate at which these events occurred went from approximately 1 every other month between 2000 and 2008 (5 per year) to more than 1 per month between 2009 and 2012 (almost 16 per year). The tracking data also indicates that this increased rate has continued into 2013 more specifically, there were 15 events. CITATION : Active Shooter Events from 2000 to 2012 By J. Pete Blair, Ph.D., M. Hunter Martaindale, M.S., and Terry Nichols, M.S. CITATION : Active Shooter Events from 2000 to 2012 By J. Pete Blair, Ph.D., M. Hunter Martaindale, M.S., and Terry Nichols, M.S /january/activ e-shooter-eventsfrom-2000-to-2012

4 Active Shooter Events (ASE) present a Planning and Preparation Challenge In many cases, there is no pattern or method to the selection of victims by an active shooter, and these situations, by their very nature, are unpredictable and evolve quickly. The average active-shooter incident happens suddenly, unfolds rapidly and the need to quickly warn those at risk is paramount. There are a number of critical priorities for preparation and planning for response to ASE incidents. Clearly, one of the priorities should be to enhance preparedness to prevent, mitigate, communicate, respond and recover from these events. Educational training, informational materials and high-quality workshops can be part of the effort to better prepare people to prevent or survive an active shooter situation. This will also help to raise awareness of behaviors that represent pre-incident indicators and characteristics of active shooters. In addition to education, training and other advance communication efforts, developing the capability to communicate urgent warnings and notification; sustain twoway communication during and after an ASE incident; and keep in close contact with key people can make an important difference in response effectiveness. One of the most critical aspects that can save lives and mitigate the horror of such atrocities is effective emergency communication. Rapid, accurate and successful warning and notification messages can make a critical difference in outcomes. Furthermore, sustained effective communication can minimize confusion, coordinate response, sustain control and aid in holistic recovery from such attacks. To enhance success, the combination of effective tools and technology used in conjunction with understanding the human factors communication challenges can equip communicators with potent and powerful resources to aid in the management of active shooter events. Figure 2 shows the number of people shot and the number of people killed for each year. Here again the reported data trend line shows a definite increase. The authors tracking indicated that there were 72 people shot and 39 killed in CITATION : Active Shooter Events from 2000 to 2012 By J. Pete Blair, Ph.D., M. Hunter Martaindale, M.S., and Terry Nichols, M.S. -shooter-events-from-2000-to-2012

5 ASE Communication Plans and Protocols Being prepared to communicate effectively before, during and after an event, such as this, is a fundamental aspect of preparedness. ASE situations are typically more complex, require high degrees of precision and have faster timelines than most other emergencies you need a precise protocol, tested procedures, highly reliable and predictable tools, advance prepared messages and/or message templates and advance risk communication education to effectively address every stage of the ASE situation. A high-speed outbound notification system capable of broadcasting voice, text, and automated survey messages is a foundational tool for communication preparedness. High-speed targeted notification is one of the most powerful tools available to easily deliver hundreds or even thousands of messages to key people. Because you never know where you will be when you need to initiate safety notification, the tool should make it easy to launch messages from any phone, smart device or web-connected computer. An Inbound/Outbound telephony information hotline is equally important. If this can be integrated with an interactive message retrieval system, designed specifically for such situations, all the better.

6 c o m m u n i c a t i o n p r i o r i t i e s Before Event: educate, train and inform At Event: Notify Law Enforcement Alert and warn people in immediate threat or danger Communicate behavioral responses (e.g. lockdown, evacuate, etc.) 5. Coordinate your response plan and your response team members Activate the Plan 6. Warn others at potential risk 7. Communicate to constituents 8. Coordination communication with partners 9. Public communication 10. Resolution and recovery communication T o p Te n C om m u nic ation Prioritie s d u r i n g a n a c t i v e s h o o t e r VOLO 9 S UNSHINE BOULEVARD ORMOND BEACH F LORIDA VOL ORECO V E RY S T AY. C O M CONNECTED V OLO-123 / S T AY PROTECTED

7 Fast and Effective Notification and Warnings ASE Communication preparedness requires a resilient capacity for emergency incident notification via multiple modalities. In addition, a backup internal telephone switching, branch exchange or PBX backup will ensure resiliency for inbound and outbound telephony. Diversified telephony pathways ensure alternative redundancies as well as prioritized seamless telephony service capacity. You should also have redundant cellular connectivity (for voice and SMS) for resilient functionality as well as redundant and resilient wireless capability. It is also important to have disaster or emergency hotline call-in capability for on-demand as needed information updates by targeted audience group. Further, it is useful to have a means for direct connect capacity with networked partners including responding agencies and members of health care coalitions. Research has found that , SMS (text) and other emergency notification messages can be effective in alerting and warning vulnerable target audiences in an ASE situation. (CITATION: Sattler, David N.; Larpenteur, Katy; and Shipley, Gayle (2011) "Active Shooter on Campus: Evaluating Text and Warning Message Effectiveness," Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management: Vol. 8: Iss. 1, Article 41. DOI: / Available at: 1/41) Sadler, Larpenteur and Shipley (2011) identified the importance of promptly notifying people in an ASE zone so that they can take protective action as the incident develops. Their study examined warning notification messages informing at risk target audiences of an active shooter which were delivered in voice format to cellular telephones and electronically to accounts. They assessed the effectiveness of the messages. The majority of respondents who received these warning notifications indicated that they understood the instructions and would take the behavioral actions for safety indicated in the messages. The results of the study indicated text and messages are effective ways to notify and provide coherent instructions to people during a life threatening emergency.

8 T o p Use notification tools to update people as an ASE situation progresses. Don t go silent keep information flowing and try to establish two-way communication connections. Even if there are no significant new developments or additional information it is important to continue to provide information and instructions. People have a tendency to link information uncertainty with behavioral and psychological reactions such as anxiety, fear, and dread. These dysfunctional tendencies can disrupt decision making quality, affect response times, and in some cases block appropriate reactions. Communication, even if just sustaining connections can dramatically influence the quality of reactions to an ASE situation. Obviously, it is important to consider whether the communication modalities themselves present risks such as a ringing cell phone or text message receipt chime these risks can be minimized with careful selection of communication modalities, use of pull rather than push techniques and of course advance education and protocols that people know to set mobile devices to silent mode during such events. 1 0 c o m m u n i c a t i o n p r i o r i t i e s d u r i n g VOL ORECO V E RY S T AY. C O M CONNECTED V OLO-123 / S T AY PROTECTED s h o o t e r VOLO 9 S UNSHINE BOULEVARD ORMOND BEACH F LORIDA a c t i v e An ASE communication plan should include specific aspects of issuing the activation of your active shootermass shooting response, as well as quickly notifying key employees, vendors, suppliers, distributors, customers, regulators, local officials, stakeholders and community members. In fact, the capacity to communicate is essential to ensuring safety, maintaining continuing operations after the event and keeping everyone informed and coordinated, despite the disruption and high levels of uncertainty. A modern efficient high speed, intuitive designed and extremely reliable two-way communication tool is critical to managing continuity of operations and implementing your plan. It is optimal if you have a high-speed outbound notification system capable of broadcasting voice, text, , and automated survey messages. High-speed notification is one of the most powerful tools available to management in managing continuity of operations. The ability to easily deliver hundreds or even thousands of messages to your employees/team members within seconds makes the difference when trying to avoid confusion, disarray and dysfunctional uncertainty during a disruption event. The tools should make it easy to launch messages from any phone, smart device or web connected computer. a n ASE Command, Control and Coordination Communication

9 T o p When the ASE situation is resolved, people need to know that the threat is contained and receive instructions for what they should do net. Such communication should come from a known and trusted source and/or contain authoritative credentials that confirm source credibility (perhaps a safe phrase or a source who is known in advance as the all clear message or message source). 1 0 S T AY C O M CONNECTED V OLO-123 / S T AY PROTECTED s h o o t e r. a c t i v e VOL ORECO V E RY a n VOLO 9 S UNSHINE BOULEVARD ORMOND BEACH F LORIDA d u r i n g One essential back-up that sustains your ability to stay in contact and stay in business during such events is a webbased backup phone system. Using a cloud-based PBX phone system that will field calls into your phone system in the event that system goes down or becomes unavailable for any reason is critical. It is important that calls can be routed to employees at pre-designated, alternate numbers including mobile phones, VOIP, back-up land lines or any other available phones. All call flows and menu options available to your callers through the backup system can be easily programmed to mirror your current or primary phone system. From your team s (and customer s) perspective, any unplanned communication failure, or forced relocation can be managed to allow your operations to continue business even during peak periods of disruption, disorder as well as dysfunctional stress, high stress and hyper-stress. p r i o r i t i e s In addition, an interactive message retrieval system designed specifically for contingency situations is essential. Ideally, the system would provide leaders and employees the ability to post and retrieve important (and even secure) messages from anywhere in the world. In many contingency events, the disruptions can impact critical infrastructure as well. Contingency plans including alternative work sites after a criminal event investigation blocks access to your facility, can be crucial for successful continuity of operations efforts. c o m m u n i c a t i o n Sustained Communication During the Chaotic Aftermath

10 Are you prepared to communicate to the right people at the right time with the right message using the right tool during an ASE incident? VOLO provides all the essential tools

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