Final Exam

Remember to use appropriate APA format for your citations. You must properly cite any source.

Steps in completing a minimum 1,000 word response to the question below.

Final Exam Scenario

For the purposes of this Final Exam essay, you are the Director of Public Safety for a community of 200,000 residents. In your capacity as Director, you oversee police, fire, and all emergency services operations for this affluent community. While you have over twenty years of public safety experience, you have been in your current position for five years and are well known and respected in the community.

You have been approached by the Headmaster, Dr. Neal Starr of the Legacy Academy. The Legacy Academy is an exclusive K-12 private school in your jurisdiction. Dr. Starr has asked you to accompany him in a special meeting with his six-member Board of Governors. Their goal is to develop and operationalize an emergency response plan for the Legacy Academy that attempts to adequately protect the students, faculty, staff, and visitors during an active shooter situation on campus. The headmaster and the board openly admit they have no expertise in this area and need your guidance first developing an emergency operations plan. In addition, they would like recommendations on how they can train their staff and faculty members.

Besides the recent rash of school shootings in the media, the headmaster calls attention to the fact that the student body does include “high profile” students who are children of varying ages and whose parents are nationally recognized icons in their respective professional domains. The headmaster and the Board of Governors will be the “audience” for your typed proposal of topical areas to be considered essential in the development of the emergency operations plan.

You have been given complete access to the campus and are free to appropriately describe actionable aspects of the campus as you see fit. In other words, you may envision the campus, its buildings, its architecture, its total environment; however you must think about whether it will contribute to your development of the emergency response plan and the topical areas for the plan.

Final Exam Food for Thought

Directions: In considering your approach to the Final Exam Scenario, review the questions below to stimulate your thought as potential approaches to your essay response.

• Have you reviewed Chapter 18 of your textbook?
• Is there a need to cite examples and benefits of strong relationships between public risk agencies and the private sector?
• Is there a need to define “processed” risk assessment information?
• Is there any benefit in referring to the general characterizations of “raw” or immediate information when dealing with the topic of communication?
• Is it beneficial to the reader of the plan to discuss the most appropriate approaches for improving the communication of risk to important stakeholders?
• Is it beneficial to the reader to understand the limitations associated with obtaining accurate and timely Risk Assessment information?
• Is it beneficial to the reader of the plan to understand the value of trend or pattern data?
• Have you given context to the term “communication” as it pertains to risk identification and assessment?
• Is it worth describing what it takes to make risk assessment information usable with any level of confidence?
• Is it worthwhile to describe how risk assessment information is employed?
• How will you articulate the traditional risk management approach for this type of incident?
• Are there any considerations to be discussed in your response about how the political system can impact the effectiveness of risk assessors in reducing hazard potential?
• Is it appropriate to articulate the effects of public perception of risk and how that can impact the effectiveness of risk assessment managers in this type of scenario?
• How can typical governmental organizational structure affect the risk assessment capability of specific agencies in a scenario of this type?
• Were there any lessons learned about the difficulties in sharing critical intelligence information between responsible agencies prior to the events of 9/11 that would be applicable to this type of scenario?
• For this type of scenario, does the planning risk manager need to know how to prioritize risk factors in order to identify the most important factors for decision-makers to consider when making assessments of hazard potential?

The Final Exam Essay Question

Describe in a well-developed narrative and include the topical areas that you would consider essential in the development of an emergency operations plan for a scenario of this type. While this Final Exam Essay must be a minimum of 1,000 words, you may be as detailed as you see fit in the preparation of your response; there is no maximum word count expectation.

You are not required to produce the complete actual emergency operations plan, but you are expected to develop the categories of the plan, with corresponding bullet statements about the variety and depth of issues covered under each category. Within your essay response you should articulate your rationale for selecting each of the topical areas, as well as the anticipated benefits and your purpose in incorporating the topical area in the formal plan.

In constructing your thoughts for organizing your response, it might be helpful to consider the risk analysis and management process.