Description
Your assignment is to develop an Emergency Communications Plan for your selected jurisdiction. Using the material from both Modules 4 and 5, consider how your jurisdiction might establish a plan of operations during an incident, including redundancy should your primary method fail. The plan should be 3-4 pages total, and will provide a brief synopsis of your communication strategy in the following areas (at a minimum):
Intra-agency Communications (Communications within your own agency, including field personnel)
Inter-agency Communications (Communications with outside agencies that would be assisting/support you)
Communications with the General Public (everything from early warnings and evacuation notices to recovery support)
Each of these three sections should follow this format:
Concept (a short summary/overview of the Section and why it’s important)
Communications Strategy (what do you wish to accomplish through this portion of the plan?)
Direction/Command/Control (who has the authority to make decisions within this area? Who are the key players and what are their roles?)
Execution (what will your execution plan for this area look like? What resources will you need, and what methods/equipment will you use? Keep in mind that your list of equipment should be a blend of both “high-tech” (i.e. radios) and “low-tech” (i.e. email))
For an example of some of the above areas, take a look at the City of Albuquerque’s Communications, Warning and Emergency Alert Plan.
This plan is obviously much more comprehensive than what I expect from your submissions, so please use it only as a resource to stimulate ideas, etc.
Please also keep the size of your jurisdiction in mind when planning these items. For example, you probably wouldn’t need multiple mobile communications vehicles with satellite capabilities for a jurisdiction of 6,000. Cost and personnel should not necessarily be limiting factors, but try to keep it within the realm of reason.
NOTE – Although Citations and References would be uncommon to find in a Communications Plan (especially in government), we are still in an academic setting. For the purposes of this assignment, please cite all references in APA format, including a References page and in-text citations. A formatted cover page and running headers are not required.
