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The Emergency Management Take: Spring 2021
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The Emergency Management Take with Bruce Fitzgerald
Three types of FirstNet Authority support for preparedness
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The four phases of the emergency management – preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery – all benefit from FirstNet’s advanced communication capabilities. Today I’d like to take a deeper dive into FirstNet and preparedness.
FirstNet Authority supports preparedness
As an independent government agency, the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority) works to understand public safety’s communication needs and provide education about how FirstNet can support their mission. One way we do that is by helping agencies be ready to use broadband technologies in their operations. FirstNet was built with interoperability, security, and priority and preemption designed for public safety to use for every day operations and large-scale events or emergencies.
The FirstNet Authority provides three types of support for FirstNet that are especially helpful to emergency managers and public safety agencies as they prepare for all hazards:
These three types of support help agencies understand how to best use FirstNet during disasters or large events, leading to more timely and efficient decision-making, better coordinated response, and well-managed resources and logistics. If you’re interested in one of these supports, contact me or your public safety advisor to set up a meeting.
Pre-planning with FirstNet Authority experts
Our team of experts at the FirstNet Authority offers pre-planning support to FirstNet users. We meet with public safety agencies preparing for impending disasters or large events to evaluate how FirstNet’s broadband technologies can be used. We convene all the relevant participants and work together to:
- Understand the scope of the event
- Identify priority locations where broadband communications are needed
- Determine the broadband capabilities and technologies public safety will use at those locations
All of this information is documented and provided to our network contractor, AT&T, to use in determining the right solution to support the event.
When Cleveland, Ohio was designated as a site for one of 2020’s presidential debates, the Cuyahoga County Emergency Management Agency contacted the FirstNet Authority for pre-planning support. The agency’s Adam Griffith credited the pre-planning with executing a safe and successful event.
“When we hosted the presidential debate in September, we worked with the FirstNet Authority team on a planning call where we talked about the event and what our communications needs were. That turned it into a really well-planned event, and it was great that the FirstNet Authority team was able to assist us,” he said. “We’ve also used the FirstNet Authority’s pre-planning support for when Cleveland hosts the upcoming NFL draft and hope to use it for next year’s NBA All-Star game too.”
Exercise inject catalog to practice using broadband
To assist agencies with integrating broadband into trainings and exercises, the FirstNet Authority developed the FirstNet Inject Catalog. This comprehensive, searchable tool poses more than 800 realistic injects (for operations-based exercises) and questions (for discussion-based exercises) related to common public safety broadband activities.
To make it easy for emergency managers to use, the FirstNet Inject Catalog was designed in the same Excel format as the widely-used Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) Master Scenario Events List (MSEL). If you are interested in learning more about the Inject Catalog, contact FirstNetExercises@FirstNet.gov.
Post-inquiry reviews for lessons learned
A post-inquiry review is pre-planning in reverse. After a disaster or event, it’s helpful to look back on the successes and challenges of the incident or event to better prepare for similar incidents or events in the future. That’s why the FirstNet Authority offers the post-inquiry review program.
When a post-inquiry review is requested, the FirstNet Authority facilitates a discussion among all participating agencies to work through a series of questions capturing successes, challenges, best practices and lessons learned. The discussion focuses on planning, logistics, operations, and technology. Then we put this information into a report for public safety agencies, the FirstNet Authority, and AT&T to help with future communications planning.
Your experience
Have you planned for an event or responded to a disaster that would have benefited from these three types of preparedness support? Do you want to integrate any of these supports into your preparedness efforts? Send me an email. I’d love to start a discussion.
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The FirstNet network continues to expand across America. In the last three months, new cell sites have gone up in: Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Tennessee, and near the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota.
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FirstNet is helping communities respond to COVID-19, by supporting vaccination efforts, enabling remote 9-1-1 operations, connecting healthcare workers, and supporting social distancing. The network allows responders to maintain reliable communications when and where they need it most – in the field, at work, and at home.
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Tech, Innovations, and Hot Topics in Emergency Management
Read what we’ve been hearing from public safety in the field about trends and drivers for emergency management and emergency communications.*
When tornadoes recently hit the southern United States, the Argonne National Laboratory identified trouble areas using a mapping system called RAPT, the Resilience Analysis and Planning Tool. RAPT is a free GIS web map that allows emergency managers to examine the interplay of census data, infrastructure locations, and hazards, including real-time weather forecasts, historic disasters, and estimated annualized frequency of hazard risk.
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FirstNet Authority Emergency Management Subject Matter Expert Bruce Fitzgerald talks about his 15 years in public safety and crisis management, valuable FirstNet tools for emergency managers, and the importance of communications during disaster response.
Watch the video and read Bruce's interview about advances in technology and FirstNet. |
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Bruce Fitzgerald is the First Responder Network Authority Emergency Management Subject Matter Expert. Learn more about Bruce or email him with your questions. |
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Top photo: Mobile command vehicle with first responders at the New York International Air Show – the FirstNet Authority works with agencies to capture best practices and lessons learned related to planning, logistics, operations, and technology use.
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*FirstNet Authority may provide hyperlinks for third-party, non-governmental websites in order to offer additional context and added value for our users. FirstNet Authority does not endorse any product or service and is not responsible, nor can it guarantee the validity or timeliness of the content on hyperlinks outside of the federal government. In addition, users may wish to review privacy notices on non-government sites since their information collection practices may differ from ours.
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