“A” WORK DISCUSSION

How do we decide what parts of an emergency reaction plan should be made public vs. kept a secret to avoid giving too much information to terrorist groups?

REPLY TO MY CLASSMATE RESPONSE TO THE ABOVE QUESTIONS AND EXPLAIN WHY YOU AGREE? (A MINIMUM OF 200 WORDS or MORE)

                                                    CLASSMATE’S RESPONSE

When determining to share an emergency plan with the public we must provide generic information with very limited details. With the previous terrorists’ attacks that have been done, we must study their plans of attack to have knowledge of the avenues they would be looking for to make a successful attack on our cities. For example, the following information would be kept secret:

a) Response Process – this information would allow terrorist to know exactly who would be responding to the scene and their duties (Florida Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, 2014).

b) Concept of Operations – this information would allow terrorist to know what that personnel are being deployed, our threat classification, and the process in which we respond (Florida Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, 2014).

c) Roles and Responsibilities – terrorist would have knowledge of local, state and regional roles and responsibilities (Florida Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, 2014).

d) Training and Exercise – terrorist would have knowledge of our training program development, implementation, and exercise the schedule would be (Florida Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan, 2014).

If any of this information was available to terrorist, it would make it easier for them to attack law enforcement, medical response personnel, assisting agencies, and all of the personnel that would be in place to attempt to destroy their plan of attack. Any information that would assist them in committing a terrorist act should be kept a secret. Information to water supply, safety facilities, and exit routes should be announced only at the time of an event. Citizens that we believe to be normal often times work for or support terrorist groups and can’t be trusted. However, any information that is made public is also accessible by the terrorist organizations that will, in turn, modify their plans to counter the strategies designed to minimize chaos and destruction. This creates a dilemma regarding how much information related to emergency planning for a terrorist attack should be made public versus what should be maintained on a “need to know” the basis to avoid giving the enemy the opportunity to adjust their plans accordingly (Spindlove & Simenson, 2013).

References:

Florida Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. (2014). The state of florida terrorism incident response annex Retrieved from https://www.floridadisaster.org

Spindlove, J. & Simenson, C. (2013). Terrorism today: The past, the players, the future (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice