April 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 55

guidance for dealing with situations
ranging from explosions to radiological attacks to employee sabotage. In
addition to longer emergency action
plans like this one, DHS has also
created a number of shorter booklets
and single-page posters that provide a
quick reference for emergency situations or basic training purposes, all of
which can be found on www.dhs.gov.
For her agency's emergency-planning development, Capps also
reached out to a number of local
universities, hospitals, and school
districts for ideas on what to include,
knowing that most of these facilities
would already have well-developed
plans in place. She also contacted
the Raleigh police department, and
a connection with the department's
SWAT team training officer was the
catalyst for developing her procedures and training plans. In terms
of creating practical, effective plans
to prepare staff, " The police department partnership has been our
most important partnership at this
point, " Capps says.
After consulting countless experts
and resources, RPRD finally completed its full Emergency Action Plan
Manual (EAP) in 2012, a 182-page
document that provides extensive
protocols regarding many of the different dangerous scenarios possible.
It includes guidance on items such
as how to evacuate people with special needs, what to say if questioned
by the media, and considerations for
working with minors.
However, Capps notes realistically,
" Your general part-time staffer is never going to read through all that. " So
in addition to the full manual, Capps
and the EAP Review Committee developed a flipbook highlighting the
key points. " It has all of the different
types of emergencies on the cover, "
she says. " You flip to the specific
emergency, and there are the top four

or five things you need to think about
in that situation. We placed one at
every front desk, in every vehicle,
in high-activity areas such as gyms
and fitness rooms-they are literally
at staff 's fingertips and provide the
most critical information. "

If you train for an activeshooter situation, you're
better equipped for most
of the other incidents
that might occur.

range from watching a quick video
highlighting key action points to running a multi-day training course that
includes scenario role-playing, triage
procedures, and incident-specific response planning.
The City of Houston developed
a six-minute YouTube video thanks
to a DHS grant titled " RUN HIDE
FIGHT: Surviving an Active Shooter, " available at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=zcnA_Cq_Csk. In general, in the case of a situation like
an active shooter, it's best to run if
you can, hide if you can't, and fight
if all else fails. The video shows office employees responding to a man
with a gun showing up suddenly at

At a parks department event in Raleigh, North Carolina, a trained crowd manager (in
orange vest) keeps an eye on the patrons, ready to lead an evacuation in an emergency.

Training Your Staff
Once your agency has established an
Emergency Action Plan, you need
to train your staff in order to make
it effective. Depending on your department's number and types of staff,
the facilities you oversee, your budget, and other factors, training can

their building, and it offers a number
of less-obvious tips, such as turning
off the ringer and vibrate functions
on your cell phone in order to avoid
drawing attention to yourself.
While the video offers excellent
advice for most situations, you
may need to adjust its instructions

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April 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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