Reference no: EM131083593

Question:

You are the safety and emergency manager or coordinator for an organization of your choosing (except for a school district). It may be a real-world or fictional entity. You are tasked with developing a strategic security plan (SSP) for this organization, then coordinating it both internally and externally with relevant stakeholders and partners. You will complete some of the requirements that are associated with this plan this week, and later you will refine your product and plan your coordination for the final assignment of this course.

Components of the strategic security plan can be found here: Strategic Security Plan Components.

Assignment Guidelines

Complete the following:

Address the following in your strategic security plan of 1,250-1,500 words:

Name and briefly describe the organization that you serve.

Include its primary mission; role in the community; and details of its capacity, capabilities, personnel, and any other relevant factors.

Using the core components that were outlined in the document linked above, devise a format, layout, configuration, or narrative map (or other product) to identify the details of your selected organization as they fall within these areas.

Examples might be a table, Web site, organizational chart with decision gates, and so on.

You have complete latitude in designing a means for delivering these details; just ensure that your product provides clear guidance for anyone who might read it.

You may also order the required components as you see fit, but your choices should be coherent. Additionally, you may add any elements that are necessary that are not among those that are required.

This week you will identify and fully describe all of the elements and requirements that are associated with each of the mandated components of the SSP.

For example, under "threats," you will, at a minimum, identify and describe the significant threats attendant to that organization, mission, facility, or geographic region. For the school district, the threat of an armed student who is engaged in violence is real and possible; the threat of food-borne salmonella may be possible, but could be bundled in a broader threat category, such as "facility environmental conditions."

Although you may consult templates, samples, and industry standard resources, the design and delivery of the plan should reflect your own original work.

Sections and Components of Strategic Plans

The SSP template here lists a number of essential elements to include, but this list is not finite. Depending upon the entity to be secured, this list could expand greatly.

Name of the plan; title page Table of Contents
o 1. 0 Purpose, Scope, and Terms

- 1.1 Purpose: Describe the purpose of this specific
plan. Remember, an organization may have multiple plans guiding operations, allocations, various activities, and
more. Mention for whom it is written, provide a brief summary of what is covered, and state what the plan is intended to accomplish.

- 1.2 Scope: Describe the scope and parameters of the organization to be covered by this plan; for example, a school, a complete school district, or an entire state's school system.

- 1.3 Terms: List and describe terms (to include acronyms) that are unique to the organization, this plan, or any of its elements. For example, a school district might use terms like lockdown and shelter-in-place. The differences in these terms may be familiar to educators but not necessarily to first responders who should be familiar with emergency procedures for the district.

o 2.0 Context or Environment

- 2.1 Identify threats: List separately, or bundle as appropriate, threats or types of threats that affect the organization, the community within which it is located, and the geographic region where it operates. Natural disasters, for example, might be listed as a bundled threat, but specific types of these disasters should be detailed below this.

- Example (School District): 2.11 Criminal Threats

- 2.111 Student-led violence. This threat is derived from student(s) who attend the specific school that is victimized. They have special knowledge of the facility, procedures, people in
attendance, and so forth, which gives them some advantage in planning and executing their criminal acts.

- 2.112 Intruders. This threat is derived from persons unaffiliated or unknown to the school.

- Other threats for the school district might include-whether bundled or separate- pandemic influenza, food-borne or water-borne illnesses, or facility degradation (such as the loss of heat or power, identification of deadly mold, or structural deficiencies).

- 2.2 Assess vulnerabilities: This section should expressly consider and detail the organization's vulnerabilities.

- 2.3 Assess special capabilities: This plan will detail specific actions to be taken in the event of a given threat scenario or crisis, but an organization's specialized capabilities can be listed here. Include what conditions, factors, or resources are needed to maintain or enhance each special capability. For cues on what an organization or community might consider, refer to the following link: Target Capabilities List.

Example (School District): Schools A and B in the district are designated to potentially serve as displaced persons or emergency shelters during certain community crises. The most likely need will arise during winter storms where main traffic thoroughfares (such as Highway XYZ and AFG) are closed. In this event, school leadership should verify their status if they are not directly notified first by District personnel.

- 2.4 Identify capability gaps: Determine and describe those capabilities the organization will need assistance in
providing. This list should be comprehensive, providing as much specificity regarding the potential need as possible. A utility company, for example, may require public HAZMAT response support in the event of X event, or transportation of up to X number of employees if evacuation off-site is required (the plan should provide values for "X" in these cases).

Example (School District): The district has limited medical response and treatment capabilities. Although each school has a nurse assigned in the event of a medical requirement of a medium-level nature (however that is defined in the "terms"), additional medical support must be available. In case a crisis prevents anyone from accessing the facility from the outside, selected staff and faculty should be trained in advanced first aid, rendering CPR.

o 3.0 Goals, Objectives, and Actions

- 3.1 Goals: These reflect priorities to be achieved and then maintained. They should be broad and include subordinate items as objectives and actions required to achieve the objectives. At a minimum, the plan should consider goals, objectives, and actions focused on prevent, protect, respond and recover activities.

- 3.2 Objectives: These should be strategic objectives or methods that reflect specifically achievable ends designed to support the goals they fall under and the plan in general.

- 3.3 Actions required to achieve objectives: These should be specifically articulated and enumerated. These lists in the

strategic plan should remain more general, referencing checklists, procedures, or other very detailed steps that are listed elsewhere (such as in an Annex to the plan). Remember, actions will likely vary for activities related to prevent, protect, respond, and recover.

Example (School District):

Goal: Prevent intruders from gaining access to school facilities

o Objective 1: Implement and maintain an access control process for each school.

- Action a. Implement and maintain a badge system for staff, faculty, and students by date.

- Action b. Implement and maintain procedures for teachers escorting students inside and outside of elementary and middle schools.

- Action c. Implement and maintain locking doors, surveillance cameras, and intercom systems for every school.

Other type of school district actions might include the following:

1. Contracting external risk assessment once every "X" number of years

2. Leveraging available training for staff, faculty, and school resource officers (SROs)

3. Developing parent involvement in safety and security initiatives

4. Training with neighboring schools and districts

o 4.0 Responsibilities, Resources, Partnerships and Initiatives

- 4.1 Responsibilities:

- 4.11 Chain of command: List or diagram the individuals and their crisis response positions in chain of
command. This crisis response chain may or may not be the same as the one used in the organization's daily operations. For example, in the school district, it is unlikely the District Superintendent would serve as the incident commander.

- 4.12 Specific responsibilities by position: These are roles and actions to be taken in a crisis response environment. For example, the principal of the school may be responsible for determining and announcing a security posture to the school (e.g., "Establish procedures IAW ‘lockdown' requirements"). The person who assumes this role in the event that the principal is unavailable should be articulated.

- 4.13 Communications plan: Elements (at minimum) should include technical information (such as radio channels, procedures, frequencies, etc. possibly listed in an annex); b. Public Information Procedures for advising the community or stakeholders of crisis response activities; and c. the plan and procedures for educating employees and stakeholders (in the SD we'd include bus drivers, substitute teachers, students and parents)

- 4.2 Resources: List those needed for each component of the plan. These can include dollars (both at present and forecasted for out-years); people-perhaps specifically designated by position, name or special skills; special expertise or capabilities; equipment; vehicles, facilities, and partnerships, etc. (These may be more appropriately added to specific actions required to achieve objectives.

- 4.3 Collaborative Partnerships and Coordination: Identify and describe the requisite partnerships the organization will require to effectively meet the plan's objectives.

- 4.4 Security, Safety and Emergency Initiatives: Include any that are internally developed or externally available in which the organization does-or should-participate. List references for where more information on these programs might be found.
o 5.0 Annexes: The SSP is the broad, strategic plan. Annexes can include specific subordinate plans, checklists, procedures, policies, and other details that are appropriately captured in separate, easily referenced sub- documents. Examples of annexes might include a Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP), off-site work procedures, a Pandemic Influenza Plan, etc.
o 6.0 Points of Contact and References

- 6.1 Points of Contact: These lists should be comprehensive and easily referenced. Partnership agencies external to the organization should be included with phone numbers and email addresses by position and name (if available and well- maintained). These lists should be checked routinely for accuracy; finding out the information is wrong during a crisis can be catastrophic. Ideally there can be a list by agency and the same information listed separately alphabetically by position or name.

- 6.2 References: List policies, Web sites, strategies, and so forth that inform this plan and the actions associated with it. These may be drawn from sources at federal, state, local, industry, company, or other levels and include guidance derived from legal, regulatory, best practices, industry standards, company policy, and so forth. Also, list where employees or group members can locate these sources such as internet web addresses or physical locations in the organization where hard copy resources are maintained.

To finalize the plan, a statement such as the following should be added to the end of the document:

This plan should be reviewed and updated no less often than every X months. The last review and update of this plan was

Be sure to reference all of your sources using APA style.