Page 14 - Campus Security & Life Safety, January/February 2022

"The general population should be involved in three aspects of emergency responses: Plan awareness and training, ensuring communications options are available, and drilling or practicing."
By Lauris Freidenfelds
Evacuation Plans
Ihave always subscribed to the motto, “Proper Planning Prevents Panic.” This is never more evident than during actual emergen- cies. I have personally experienced the narrowing of my vision and a foggy thought process when confronted with an unex- pected, dangerous situation. And, even though I have been a part of the safety and security industry for decades, it is still frighten- ing. For the average person, it can be paralyzing.
To maximize the safety of all, the general population should be involved in three aspects of emergency responses: Plan awareness and training, ensuring communications options are available, and drilling or practicing.
Although there are many emergencies that may require evacuations, the common thread should be a consistent plan, regardless of the threat. It’s essential to review and assess the risks of your environment.
Develop plans that are simple and easy to read. Try to reduce the plans to just one page of bulleted items. There is no need to go into the history of active shooter incidents. Simply tell your people what to do and where to go. It is also a best practice to place these simple instructions out where people can see and read every day.
As much as possible, it is a best practice to keep evacuation routes the same for all emergencies. Creating different plans routes and rou- tines for each type of emergency over-complicates the situation and can confuse people.
Additionally, something that frequently gets overlooked in the planning process is where people congregate after they exit a build- ing. Ensure that the plan includes a mustering or rally location. These locations should be safe distance from the affected area, and a per- son—such as a fire warden—should be assigned to inventory who is out safely. More and more security professionals have been imple- menting new technology to collect the data of who is safely out of the building and have it available for the authorities. Emergency first responders want to know who, and how many people, are left in a hazardous area. They do not want to send their resources into the area if it has been completely evacuated.
Communication best practices
If you are a campus public safety leader, you probably recognize that every year you have up to 25% new students on the campus. They will be struggling to figure out their new environment. Many will be alone and on their own for the first time and inundated with information. Therefore, safety and security should contribute to their new student
orientation.
Step one is explaining how an emergency will be communicated.
It’s crucial to get them included in the campus mass notification/com- munication system. An automatic enrollment system is the best option for everyone, since the “opt in” usually engages only a small percentage of the population. In fact, there are some statistics indicat- ing that when the population is required to take action to enroll, only 30% to 50% do so. Of course, if there has been an incident on campus, those percentages increase.
The automatic enrollment option requires that you ask each person for a cell phone number to be used to contact them in an emergency. I have encountered the usual pushbacks to enrollment: “It is my per- sonal phone, and I don’t want the organization to have that number” or “I don’t want the organization tracking my location.” This may require building trust with your population.
To achieve the most effective means of mass communication, ensure that the messages are transmitted via multiple modalities. There are many options from SMSD/text, to mobile alert apps for smart phones, social media, fire evacuation voice system, public pag- ing systems and digital signage.
Cell phone/SMS/text alerting systems have the highest degree of satisfaction and effectiveness, and today, almost everyone carries a smart phone and uses the texting feature. The systems have become more sophisticated in recent years and now include geo-fencing capa- bilities. Geo-fencing is the technological capability to send a text message to only those people in the geographic area of the incident. This helps in preventing panic or concern by people not affected. (Although it’s tempting, it’s important to avoid utilizing cell phone/ SMS/text alerting systems for non-emergencies, as this will cause some to turn off the notifications. Don’t send out messages about tuition payments or school store sales.)
If an emergency condition involves the loss of cell towers or con- nectivity, you will need an alternative method to reach out to your population. Consider the use of digital information signage, which can be converted to transmit emergency alerts. Many campuses now have these in every building. Most buildings have a fire command location (where the fire alarm system identifies the location of the fire) that will have an ability to communicate via that system. It’s important to have a plan in place to utilize this system.
Additionally, make sure that the person who communicates via a voice system provides concise and calm messages. It is a good prac-
14 campuslifesecurity.com | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
Evacuation Essentials: Proper Planning Prevents Panic