Florida\'s Plan for Responding to Terrorism

Forida’s Terrorism Incident Response Annex: Is It Adequate? The State of Florida’s Terrorism Incident Response Annex (2014) is an adequately formed and produced procedure for how to respond to a terrorist incident. The Terrorist Event Response Process consist of two actions that are unique to emergency operations involving crisis and consequence management, as the Annex (2014) points out. The 2 actions are: “1) Identifying the event as a known, suspected, or threatened terrorist or cyber terrorist attack; and, 2) Assuring notifications to agencies are made” (p. 3-1).

According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA, 2002), these two-step procedure sets up the motions for adequate response to be set in motion, as there are many facets to efficient response to terrorism. Identifying the event and alerting the responsible agencies of the event are crucial. This paper will discuss Florida’s Terrorism Incident Response Annex and show why it is appropriate and adequate.

According to FEMA (2002), state and local planner should display the following characteristics in their planned responses to terror incidences: 1) flexibility, 2) coordination, 3) communication strength, 4) contingencies ready, 5) procedures in place for emergency public information and media relations procedures, 6) integration of Federal assets into the local response, and 7) support services available. Similarly FEMA’s (2004) Annex provides guidance on establishing a “structure for a systematic, coordinated, unified, timely, and effective national law enforcement and investigative response to threats or acts of terrorism within the United States” (p. TER-1).

Taken together, these two documents from FEMA serve as a helpful framework for measuring the adequacy of the State of Florida’s Terrorism Incident Response Index. Firstly, Florida’s Annex is structured and displays a systematic and coordinated approach to assessing the situation and embarking on a procedure to address the situation—so it fits in line with FEMA’s (2004) recommendations for being systematic, structured and coordinated.

It details the Response Process by breaking it down into sections, beginning with a general overview of the process, and following that with how the response should proceed when the incident scene is not clearly defined. It then covers the local response procedure, the state and regional response procedure, including procedures for the Florida National Guard, the Regional Domestic Security Task Force, and the Department of Environmental Protection and Environmental Terrorism Response Team. It describes the Federal Response, and addresses other entities that may be included in the response.

The State of Florida’s Annex also details the concept of operations, the exact process in the Terrorist Event Process, including the three step process of 1) detection, 2) notification, and 3) threat classification. It overviews the State Emergency Response Operations, including the activation of the State Emergency Operations Center, the deployment of state liaison personnel, the mobilization of other state resources, and the process for how the response is wound down and deactivated—which is important for maintaining control throughout the entire process from beginning to end.

The plan also addresses roles and responsibilities of stakeholders at the local level, regional level and state level. It concludes with a description of training and exercises for stakeholders in the Annex. As such, it is clear that the State of Florida’s Annex meets the guidelines of FEMA’s (2002) recommendations. It shows coordination among the various levels and role players throughout the state.

It describes how Federal assets will be integrated into the local response—albeit rather tersely: “All federal Consequence Management Resources will operate as defined under the NRF. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is the lead federal agency for Consequence Management” (State of Florida’s Terrorism Incident Response Annex, 2014, p. 2-7)—but this information is at least provided nonetheless. One area where there is not much guidance is on the issue of having a plan in place for emergency public information and media relations procedures.

While the Annex does discuss managing the media and having pre-incident information ready to give, there is not a lot of policy dictated as to what that information should be or how the media should be worked with to help guide the public in obtaining adequate and appropriate information. It simply states that one of the emergency support functions is to “prepare and maintain pre-incident public information materials and background briefings for the media on the operations and capabilities of the Florida Terrorism Response System” (p. 4-9).

While this is an appropriate function, more could be said on the subject. In conclusion, the State of Florida’s Terrorism Incident Response Annex is an.