By Kathy Amoroso
June 23, 2003

"Arming citizens with knowledge is the key to making your homeland security plan work," said Fort Collins Mayor Ray Martinez at the Community Policing Workshop at the Annual Conference of Mayors in Denver on Monday, June 9, 2003. Sponsored by the Mayors' Institute for Community Policing, which is funded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) at the Department of Justice, the COPS workshop brought together mayors, police officials and private sector emergency telephone notification personnel to examine regional community policing partnerships as crime fighting tools to strengthen homeland security, combat gang violence and prevent child and adult abduction.

Alexandria (VA) Mayor Kerry Donley opened the session, outlining his city's role in regional planning and coordination for improved homeland security. "One of Alexandria's first responses to September 11 was to create a new Office of Intelligence and Internal Security within the Police Department," Mayor Donley told the group. "This new unit consists of three officers. One of these officers is attached to the FBI Washington Field Office's Joint Terrorism Task Force. To accomplish their mission of intelligence gathering, internal security for the city and emergency preparedness, they work closely with federal, state and local intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including, of course, the FBI and the Office of Homeland Security. A weekly conference call takes place among all local police chiefs and appropriate federal agencies. In times of increased threat — an elevated alert or the sniper shootings last fall — this call takes place on a daily basis. The Office of Intelligence and Internal Security works closely with the Special Operations Division and the Fire Department. A high level of cooperation and coordination exists among these groups and other city departments," he said.

Before September 11, the Alexandria Police and Fire Departments had already established liaisons to citizens groups in the city, such as condominium and neighborhood associations. This network has enabled Police and Fire personnel to provide important information to citizens concerning emergency preparedness. On a regional scale, the publication Your Guide to Emergency Preparedness was prepared through the cooperative efforts of 14 jurisdictions in Northern Virginia, under the auspices of the Northern Virginia Regional Commission. "The distribution of the Guide was a good example of regional cooperation," Mayor Donley said. "All Northern Virginia subscribers to The Washington Post received it as part of their regular home delivery. Copies are also available at public buildings, libraries and City Hall."

"In closing, I can't over-emphasize the importance of communication, and how innovative technology can be used to improve vital links between agencies and across jurisdictions. The decision-making process relies on accurate information being available and exchanged. It is also important to use live training exercises and drills. We all know that the best intentioned written "plans" never turn out as expected. Nothing beats real time practice," Donley said.

Fort Collins Mayor Ray Martinez, accompanied by Lieutenant John Pino of the Fort Collins Police Department, then addressed the session. "The best crime fighting tools actually come from the community itself," Mayor Martinez said. "If the people are armed with knowledge, they can often prevent the crime from occurring in the first place. The sources are there, all they need to do is seek them out."

Referring to Fort Collins' preparations for an emergency situation, Mayor Martinez outlined the details of his Mobile Command Post, a thirty-five foot winnebago. "The technology in the vehicle is state of the art and was specified to handle a complex inter-agency response to any incident. Cell and hardwire communications, satellite internet capability, video transfer from remote sites to command post and multiple frequency radio will all be available. The command post is a joint project between our Fire and Police Departments to improve operational capabilities while operating as a group or in individual department situations," Mayor Martinez said.

Currently Fort Collins has the expertise to respond to a chemical, biological or radiological incident with a trained Haz-Mat team. The team works on a regional basis with Greeley, Loveland, Boulder and Longmont supporting the system with joint training and standardizing equipment for better operational capability. The city has personal protective gear kits for 150 first responders (police, fire and EMS) that would be used in the event of a chemical or biologic incident.

Mayor Martinez stressed the principles of community policing however, in preparing for a terrorist or any other criminal incident. "A primary function of our District One and Fort Collins police officers is to engage in community policing, proactive problem solving, and creating and maintaining police/ community partnerships. Community policing is proactive, solution-based and community driven. It requires local government, law enforcement agencies and law-abiding citizens to work together to solve community problems, prevent crime, arrest offenders and improve the overall quality of life in our community. Proactive problem solving is the ability of the police and the community to look at a problem with a shared vision, trusting that each partner will support a unified approach to resolving a problem or diminishing its impact," he said.

Sherry Friedlander, Founder and Executive Director of A Child Is Missing, Inc. (ACIM), then outlined her organization's work to prevent and resolve child and adult abduction. Since 1997, A Child Is Missing has provided Florida law enforcement with its first responder program. ACIM's effectiveness as a tool for assisting law enforcement in tracking down the missing has led to expansion of service in other states. A Child Is Missing was featured in the Mayors' Institute for Community Policing's most recent Best Practices publication entitled Best Practices of Community Policing in the Prevention and/or Resolution of Child or Adult Abduction: The Success of the Amber Alert.

"Only law enforcement can activate the program," said Ms. Friedlander. "It works like this: An officer calls A Child Is Missing, operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, providing information about the missing person's description, clothes worn, and last time and place seen. With its high-tech telephony, A Child Is Missing can place up to 1,000 calls in less than five minutes. There is a 98 percent listen rate by residents or businesses answering phones. Call recipients are asked to call police with any information they have about the missing person. Since 1997, A Child Is Missing has received more than 4,900 calls for assistance from law enforcement and has placed over 2.9 million alert calls to residents. In the past 19 months, law enforcement has credited ACIM with 43 successful recoveries."

Mark Scott, Vice President for Homeland Security with Intrado, Inc., was the final speaker. Intrado Inc, the nation's leader in 9-1-1 database management, partners with The U.S. Conference of Mayors to educate mayors nationwide on how to implement effective emergency telephone notification for their cities.

Intrado's emergency telephone notification service, IntelliCast Target Notification, can help the nation's mayors alert their communities to natural and man made disasters as well as civic emergencies like missing children. It is designed to meet the mayors' goals in the areas of emergency preparedness, homeland security, anti-terrorism infrastructure, metropolitan emergency management and emergency communications technology.

"IntelliCast Target Notification is the most cost effective mass notification tool available for rapidly distributing critical information in a crisis," Mr. Scott said. "Available as a hosted service, it combines the ability to place thousands of call in minutes, with in-house expertise in database management. As a result, users can efficiently contact those intended, wherever and whenever needed."

In addition to The U.S. Conference of Mayors, other national organizations like The National Crime Prevention Council, and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recognize this technology as a critical public safety tool. Each is working to increase awareness of how emergency telephone notification can improve a community's ability to respond to crises of any magnitude.