Firefighters Support Foundation

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Firefighters Support Foundation

• Mass Violence Post-Response Operations
• --------
• Joint-Agency Response Efforts Following Active
  Assailant/Active Shooter Incidents
• v1.0

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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.

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Permission

• Permission is granted to reproduce or distribute
  this material so long as the Firefighters Support
  Foundation is credited as the source

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Accompanying Video

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

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Presenter
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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

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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.

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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

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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

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Pre-Incident Planning

• Critical 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

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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

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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

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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 anticipate specific AS/MCI (active
  shooter/mass casualty incident) scenarios they
  may experience, but it is possible to develop a
  generic plan that provides a model to apply in
  almost every situation that arises

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Command Post Operations

• According to the Hartford 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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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)

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ICS Resources

• Use available NO COST resources
• Continue with FEMA ICS 100 200 classes for ALL
  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

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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

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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

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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

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BE SAFE!