Crisis Intervention: Response

By Danielle Kelley, MSWCriminal Justice, Adjunct Professor

Critical Incident - Hazards• Critical Incidents can expose first officers to several hazards (Slaikeu,p. 222)

– Personal danger, stress vulnerability, “ counter disaster syndrome “ from working long hours under intense pressure, reduction to sensitivity, hyperarousal to certain sights, sounds, and smells from certain critical incidents

Police arrive at Columbine High School in Colorado, knowing that a shooting has occured, but unprepared for the scale of what they're confronting. By the time the massacre is over, students Dylan Klebold, 17, and Eric Harris, 18, have shot 12 students and one teacher to death, injured 23 others, and killed themselves. It is the fourth worst school shooting in U.S. history, and the deadliest ever at an American high school. April 20, 1999.

Response

• Disaster preparedness requires seamless communication for decision-makers to stay one step ahead of the crisis.

New Technology

• School alarms that activate seconds before an earthquake strikes. Mobile robots that explore burning buildings, sending video and other data to emergency operations centers. "Smart buildings" equipped with an 802.11 network layer that enables rescuers wearing sensor-packed devices to view in their eyepieces up-to-the-minute building maps indicating which rooms are occupied.

Contributions: University• IRVINE, Calif., Sept. 18 (AScribe Newswire) -- The National

Science Foundation today announced it will award $9 million to University of California, Irvine, and $3.5 million to University of California, San Diego, to address how information technology can revolutionize response to crises, including natural disasters. The five-year project, called "Responding to the Unexpected," will develop innovative information sharing tools and organizational strategies for first responders, and will be managed by Cal-(IT)2, a two-campus science and innovation institute created in 2000.

Human Intelligence + Technology• In the 1980's the Congress and the FCC designated a

nationwide police emergency channel, 155.475 Mhz.• iRobots makes tactical robots which carries weapons (tazers) signs

contract with US military. Maybe the “police” of the future?

Los Angeles Riots, 1992

California Emergency Services Act

• § 8558. Conditions or degrees of emergency Three conditions or degrees of emergency are established by this chapter: (a) “State of war emergency” means the condition which exists immediately, with or without a proclamation thereof by the Governor, whenever this state or nation is attacked by an enemy of the United States, or upon receipt by the state of a warning from the federal government indicating that such an enemy attack is probable or imminent.

California Emergency Services Act. Condition #2

• “State of emergency” means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state caused by such conditions as air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, sudden and severe energy shortage, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor’s warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake.

• By reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat.

Northridge Earthquake, 1994

California Emergency Services Act. Condition #3

• “Local emergency” means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the territorial limits of a county, city and county. (Oakland Earthquake, 1989).

Federal Crisis Response Program

• FBI• The Operations Support Branch (OSB) of Critical Incident Response Group

consists of the Crisis Negotiation Unit, Crisis Management Unit, and Rapid Deployment Logistics Unit. The OSB has various functions including the rapid delivery of personnel to a scene, whether it be a bombing or crimes against children investigation.

• Functions:– Operations– Training– Research– program management

National Security

• Secretary of State• Department of Defense (Pentagon)

A U.S. Navy SH-60B Seahawk helicopter prepares to take off from the flight deck of the guided missile destroyer USS Mustin during night air operations in the Coral Sea, July 14, 2009.

Threats to National Security

• North Korea Nuclear Missile Crisis (1993,Pres.Bush)

• Cuban Missile Crisis (1962, Soviet Union, Pres. Kennedy).

Japanese Bombing of Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941

Psychological First Aid for Victims Positive Investigation

• To facilitate law enforcement’s ability to effectively address crime victims’ needs, IACP, in close collaboration with the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) at the Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, has developed a comprehensive and systemic model for institutionalizing a shift in law enforcement culture to enhance victim response.

• When crime victims have been treated with compassion, dignity and respect, they are more likely to cooperate in the investigation of crime, thus making law enforcement’s job easier at first response and as cases progress through the justice system.

Psychological First Aid = Collective Resolution

• By enacting the strategy CJ professionals will have not only provided victims with the best possible treatment, but have largely improved the likelihood of becoming much better equipped to apprehend and prosecute perpetrators.

– international Association of Chiefs of Police

Jonestown Massacre, Nov. 11, 1978

Technique to Reduce CISR • America was not built on fear.• America was built on • courage,• imagination• and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.

– Harry S. Truman Pres. 1945