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Critical Incident Solutions has vast experience in supporting Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) programs. Over the past few years, we have made a significant impact in the State of Ohio and its three UASI designated cities. We were responsible for all 88 counties throughout the State of Ohio in supporting their implementation of the State Homeland Security Assessment and Strategy Program (SHSAS) in accordance with the Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) guidelines. This required our firm to assign regional coordinators for the SHSAS Program to ensure that all jurisdictions correctly submitted risk assessment, capabilities assessment, and needs assessment data through the on-line ODP secure portal. We also assisted each jurisdiction with the selection of the top 10 most "at-risk" facilities within their jurisdiction. Additionally, we assisted each jurisdiction with the development of potential scenarios based on the actual threat and vulnerabilities associated with their jurisdiction. This included writing the scenario for each style of attack, developing mass casualty projections using modeling software for chemical and explosive attacks, and various other scenarios as they pertain to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive events. This enabled each jurisdiction to accurately predict the number of deceased, worried well, stretcher bound, and non-injured personnel for emergency response to a mass casualty event.
We have helped each of these cities (Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati) develop stronger WMD response procedures and protocols and have been called upon repeatedly to assist in a variety of capacities. In an effort to further define overall vigilance of Ohio government facilities in regards to terrorism preparedness, the Ohio Department of Public Safety requested assistance from our firm for the State Buildings Homeland Security Review. Our company was tasked to assist the Ohio Department of Public Safety in conducting an in-depth study of "key" facilities in Ohio and similar facilities in other states. The primary objective of this project was to evaluate the overall preparedness of Ohio facilities in preventing, responding to, and mitigating terrorist attacks.
The scope of this project also involved selecting various facilities from the Midwestern United States for comparison purposes. These comparison studies provided Ohio emergency planners with benchmarks of how well prepared Ohio facilities are when compared to like facilities in similar states. The comparison phase of the project involved the on-site assessment of eight (8) facilities in Ohio and seventeen (17) facilities in three other states. The project transpired over a six month period and was comprised of several phases. The first phase consisted of determining the current preparedness level of Ohio facilities by reviewing key security documents, security policies, security plans, and security recommendations for all Ohio state government offices. The next phase of the project involved traveling to each facility and conducting in-depth terrorism risk assessments (threat and vulnerability assessments) for establishing a security "benchmark" for all Ohio government facilities. The next phase of the project involved traveling to three other states and conducting in-depth terrorism risk assessments at similar facilities for comparative analysis. The final phase of this project involved developing comparison tools to illustrate the differences in preparedness and emergency response planning for each facility evaluated. CIS has continued to enjoy a cooperative relationship with emergency response officials in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio respectively.
Our company has been tasked to assist with a variety of UASI projects and various other Homeland Security related projects over the past few years. One of the most recent projects that we were awarded was the training of 3,500 law enforcement officers in WMD Awareness, Self-Protection Measures, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) utilization. This project will ensure that all Hamilton County officers are properly trained for WMD/Mass Casualty response and that they understand their role as first responders at catastrophic events. We were also contracted to assist Hamilton County and City officials with developing an aggressive security plan to protect the Board of Elections (BOE) during the recent Presidential Election. Our experts drafted the security master plan, provided training for security workers and mail handlers (screeners) and provided technical assistance for the development of a stand-alone mail screening area for the processing of all absentee ballots and various other packages delivered to the facility. We also assisted with the development of Continuity of Government (COG) and Continuity of Operations Plans (COOP) to ensure back-up plans were ready in the event a problem occurred at the primary BOE facility.
One of the most current projects we have been contracted by Hamilton County for is the development of an Automated Threat and Vulnerability Assessment Tool. Our experts will develop an automated data collection process for Hamilton County Officials that will enable their officers to conduct threat and vulnerability assessments on all facilities within their jurisdiction. The data will be entered into a standardized collection medium and stored for use during actual emergencies with regards to the number of personnel at each facility, additional WMD augmenting material, and various other pertinent data to assist emergency response personnel with mass casualty events. CIS staff will develop this assessment tool, train Hamilton County personnel with its operational use, and assist with the deployment of field data collection resources. Overall we have assisted the State of Ohio in a variety of capacities pertaining to UASI initiatives. Our knowledge and expertise have been repeatedly called upon to assist with the development of vital homeland security projects and programs, many of which were sponsored by the Office of Domestic Preparedness.
Critical Incident Solutions has also recently assisted the Tampa, Florida, UASI and local RDSTF Region with conducting a Table-Top Exercise that focused on intelligence information sharing and emergency response to acts of terrorism affecting multiple locations throughout the Tampa Bay region and surrounding counties. This effort is part of an ongoing training and preparedness program, which the Tampa Bay region is using to prepare for the Super Bowl which will be held in Tampa in 2009.
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