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... 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…