Federal Public Safety Initiatives

In the aftermath of 9/11, it has become imperative that we adequately prepare our nation’s law enforcement for the proper management of situations concerning weapons of mass destruction. Upon the authority of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and under a grant awarded by the Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice has funded the national Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) to provide leadership in education for law enforcement agencies and their communities.

As NSA’s primary training and technical assistance provider, Community Safety Institute (CSI) was tasked with developing three new national WMD training programs:

• WMD Executive Level Training – This training focuses specifically on:
  • Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction Overview
  • Roles and Responsibilities
  • Identification and Assessment of Threats, Vulnerabilities and Resources
  • Communications
  • Intelligence Gathering and Information Sharing
  • National Incident Management System (NIMS) and On-Scene Management
• Long Distance Jail Evacuation - This program was designed to increase awareness of the need to plan for a long-distance jail evacuation, the potential threats to jails and the level of planning required to execute a long-distance jail evacuation in the event of a WMD incident. Use of emerging technologies to share information will be explored.
• Community Partnerships and Awareness Training - NSA will assist sheriffs and their command staffs with the task of educating community groups to prepare for a WMD attack. This program will concentrate on mobilization and partnership building and establishing goal-oriented coalitions. The business, faith, academic and professional communities will be invited to participate along with their local sheriff's office. Once formed, these partnerships will enable communities to identify possible targets, assess the level of threat to those targets and determine the resources required to effectively neutralize or minimize an attack, identify where to find those resources, and develop quick-reference guides for their community.