Public Safety Planning
Strategic planning is a process that focuses on broad policy-level issues. Strategic planning focuses on the long-term vision and how they should work towards achieving it. The top-level manager's design and establishes planning priorities. Strategic planning helps to set the progression for a specific topic such as preparedness and impact other planning projects (State of Maryland 2016). It helps to clarify where an organization is, where it wants to be, and what is required to get there. Operational planning is more specific because it discusses the main actions required to accomplish a mission at a broad- agency precise level. Operational planning designates the activities that should take place but does not provide specifics into how the activities should be performed. An example is supporting evacuation efforts.
Tactical planning puts more emphasis on the current operations and activities and specifically describes those activities (FEMA 2018). It is the most specific type of planning since it describes even the personnel who is needed to accomplish the activities. Apart from describing the activities, tactical planning may also describe the particular resources and equipment that needs to accomplish the activities. Examples of tactical plans include a sheltering plan.
Emergency planning is a continuing process that involves assessment, plan generation, and the acquirement by people and groups of performance skills acquired through training, exercises, and evaluations. The purpose of emergency planning is to anticipate both active and passive resistance regarding the planning process and establish strategies that will help to manage these hurdles (Lindell & Perry 2008). This is because people don’t like to think about their vulnerability when it comes to disasters and some resist planning because it uses a lot of resources. Emergency planning addresses all hazards such as floods, earthquakes, storms among others that the community is exposed to. To ensure that all the hazards are addressed and that it is effective, emergency planning should involve all response organizations, allow them to participate, and show their commitment to the course. Emergency planning requires planners to have accurate knowledge of how individuals behave during a disaster and determine the appropriate strategies to deal with it. It requires that the emergency managers identify the geographical areas that are prone to disasters and identify the facilities and population that occupy those areas. Emergency planning helps in identifying the types of response actions that are likely to be appropriate. It addresses the connection of emergency response to disaster recovery. It provides training and assessment of emergency response at individual, team, department, and community levels.
The national preparedness system helps to determine how federal organizations and sectors contribute to the correct resources at the correct time in support of state and local processes. Components of the national preparedness system are the development and maintenance of an understanding of the different risks that are encountered by communities and the way this information can be used to create and put up with preparedness (FEMA 2010). A risk assessment gathers statistics about dangers and hazards and the significances. The risk and hazard identification and risk assessment THIRA expands an existing state and local risk identification and risk evaluation. The THIRA requires the whole community to be involved and share information for it to be effective. Analysis of THIRA outcomes helps to guide future preparedness efforts and is also used to educate people on the risks that are facing the community and what roles they play in preparedness. The strategic risk assessment examines the bigger hazards to the nation and the consequences are used in prioritizing preparedness actions at the national level and notify risk evaluation determinations at the state and local levels of the government.
References
FEMA (2010). Comprehensive preparedness guide 101 (Section 1 & 2) –
https://www.fema.gov/sites/default/files/2020-
05/CPG_101_V2_30NOV2010_FINAL_508.pdf
FEMA (2018) Strategic Plan Federal Emergency Management Agency.
file:///C:/Users/owner/AppData/Local/Temp/FEMAstrategic_planPDF.pdf
Lindell, M. K. & Perry, R. W. (2008). Emergency planning: improve community preparedness
with these basic steps, Emergency Management
http://www.govtech.com/em/disaster/Emergency-Planning-Improve-Community.html
State of Maryland (2016). Maryland plan development process (Chapter 1 & 2)
http://mema.maryland.gov/Documents/MD_Plan_Development_Process_April_2016-FINAL.pdf
