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ALL ABOUT IT The Norfolk Model for Homeland Security The Norfolk Model for Homeland Security and Disaster Response received the 2006 Mitretek Award as one of the five best homeland security innovations as evaluated and selected by the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. The Norfolk Model is three things:
First, it is a vision, an ideal end state encompassing the needs and contributions of responders, volunteers, and organizations essential to the delivery of homeland security and emergency response for a local jurisdiction. It embraces total public awareness and interaction. After all is said and done, it is the actions of the public that prepare for, prevent, and resolve terrorist attacks and emergencies; Second, it is about the leading edge accomplishments and preparedness of the city of Norfolk as it presses forward implementing the Norfolk Model vision for its residents and businesses; and Third, it is about seeking the resources and recognition necessary to build out a completed model, to demonstrate the return on investment, to establish the Norfolk Model as a template for use by all jurisdictions, and to establish a “Balanced Scorecard or ISO-9000” like system for measuring the homeland security and emergency response performance and readiness of any city or county in the country. The recent response failures witnessed in New Orleans and the equally disturbing events surrounding the 9/11 World Trade Center terrorist attacks point to the need for a better way. The Norfolk Model directly addresses the essential components needed to mitigate the damage and speed the recovery effort for all emergencies. It fully addresses the comprehensive needs that can prevent terrorism within a jurisdiction and maximizes the response capability of first responders (who after all are all local police officers, firefighters, rescue workers, and volunteers). FOUR FOUNDING PRINCIPLES First Principle—Homeland Security Is a Local Issue. All emergencies have a local address. No “outside” entity can deliver the “boots on the street” with the numbers of knowledgeable professionals and volunteers like a local community. Victims, volunteers, and care facilities are local. Even the most infamous terrorist target, the World Trade Center, was a local event. The sprinkler system, building plans, emergency procedures, permits, inspections, and water supply were all the responsibility of local agencies. Even Flight 93 crashed into a field in a local jurisdiction and it left the ground from a local airport.
When a residential fire occurs, organizations like the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and local churches respond. They assist the family with immediate normal needs like replacing a destroyed driver’s license or paycheck and finding shelter for the night. That same residential fire, however, could involve: a methamphetamine lab, terrorist bomb, infectious disease, or a domestic dispute. In most cases, this is data that exists somewhere. It may be on paper, in a database, in someone’s head, or restricted because of some misguided regulation. First responders need this information—they deserve to know what they are getting into before they arrive on the scene. Those of us at the forefront in local government realize that cities, towns, and counties serve in both defensive and offensive roles. All incidents start and end at a local address. Everything in between, everything before and everything after, is ultimately the responsibility of local government. The Norfolk Model places the responsibility of the first responder completely in the hands of the local jurisdictions where it must reside. According to the FEMA website (stated years before hurricane Katrina and remains today): “Local governments are the first line of defense against emergencies and disasters and are primarily responsible for managing the response to those events. At the local government level, the primary responsibility for protecting citizens belongs to the local elected officials like mayors, city councils and boards of commissioners.” Make all the excuses you want, but the bottom line in New Orleans was that the local government was woefully unprepared. A fully deployed Norfolk Model is the key to establishing a national standard to measure jurisdictional readiness. A homeland security “ISO-9000” or “balanced scorecard” process would provide a universal objective based readiness standard to which all jurisdictions might be measured. This would mean that the emergency preparedness plans for New Orleans could have been audited against a known standard. The state and federal governments and all other cities and agencies, as well as the citizens of New Orleans, would have had an objective way of knowing how their city rated in its preparedness for emergencies, disasters, and terrorism. Second Principle—the Norfolk Model is a Vision—Success Requires Vision. Success is not just about the delivery of services it is also about each city’s role to better facilitate those who do.
The Norfolk Model is the holistic composition of a vision, a strategic plan, and a framework or architecture upon which the infrastructure and resources are provided to all involved stakeholders: victims, responders, and all service providers. It introduces new technologies and unprecedented interagency collaboration and interoperability that maximize communication and data exchange in the event of a terrorist act, natural disaster, or any other incident. Third principle—Governance and Silos. Siloed services are essential. A police department, fire department, even the Red Cross are of necessity service delivery silos. However, because of today’s complexity there can no longer be “independent” silos, they must become “interdependent.” This is a cultural change—especially regarding siloed data. Every team, collaboration, and project must have formal governance structures that are inclusive of all stakeholders and communities of interest. There must also be a formal governance structure, vision, and mission. Fourth Principle—Homeland Security Is a Technology Issue. Homeland security is about data, and this makes it a technology issue. It was data delivered to the passengers on Flight 93 that allowed them to move to knowledge and then to take action. What would have been the outcome if they had gotten the data just five minutes sooner, or one hour later? And—the technology infrastructure is the bridge between police, fire, and all responders, it can also be a barrier. We learned during 9/11 the fire department and other agencies had incompatible radios. Technology itself, however, is just an accelerator. Cultural change must precede technology—the culture is the driver of the car—the foot on the accelerator as it were. Right Data, Right Silo
Homeland security, emergency response, and the Norfolk Model are about getting the:
“Right information” means all essential information needed by any and all responders to do their jobs as effectively and safely as possible. Training, for example, is really nothing more than getting the right information “to” the right person. Silo integrity is critical to the ability of agencies to get and maintain data essential to their respective missions. The Red Cross, for example, is better able to do its job because people trust their “brand name” for lack of a better term. Getting essential “siloed” information to the right person is at the core of homeland security success. To do this requires not just the technical ability to do so but more importantly having agreements worked out and in place for data sharing, security, and integrity allowing seamless data flow between silos. Hence we have the Norfolk Model. FIVE STRATEGIC COMPONENTS The Norfolk Model consists of five strategic components that are common to emergency response in all jurisdictions (go to www.norfolk.gov/ homelandsecurity for more details). 1. Digital TV—2—Way Interactive IP Based Digital Television must be provided over the air and through fiber to the home (FTTH) with connectivity and basic services free to every resident. This facilitates amber alerts and emergency notifications by block, zip code, or citywide, but most importantly it provides citizens with interactive response capability.
While fiber to the home or FTTH is the ultimate form, unfortunately this will not happen in the US for ten years or more—the US has been, and continues, on a course that will turn the “digital divide” into the digital Grand Canyon and unfortunately the state of Virginia is among those leading this backward charge. As incredulous as it may seem Virginia state law prohibits cities and counties from delivering these essential services to its residents, workers, businesses, students, and visitors. Until telecommunications, specifically FTTH, is understood to be as essential to local government as are their streets, water system, sewer system, electricity, and natural gas, cities in the US will continue to decline economically, culturally, and in communications and related services. We must learn and insist that the “last mile” (from the pole to the premise) is public domain and not a commercial commodity. Especially it cannot continue to be a government sanctioned private for-profit monopoly. The FCC regulations erode even further the local control for attaining the best communications systems to safeguard citizens against terror, disasters, emergencies, as well as criminal activity. Knowing this fact, the city has successfully pursued alternate options. In a press release issued January 5, 2006 at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, Norfolk, Virginia will be the first city on the east coast to receive USDTV’s over the air digital TV service. Digital TV brings local control over the broadcast into the homes for every resident. It also allows for direct 2–way communication via the TV set and provide the ability to show what is going on in a local area, receive human and sensory feedback instantaneously, and be able to geographically map all incidents all of which are major components of homeland security and emergency capacity. Citywide Communications Vision Norfolk is a “City of Access” where every resident, business, and visitor has a virtual key to the city and the world. Our robust, reliable, and secure voice, video, and data communications infrastructure seamlessly integrates the public and private wired, wireless, and wire free worlds; providing the capacity to access information, arts, and entertainment and conduct business instantaneously anywhere, anytime. 2. Wireless Communications or wireless systems as a whole, must be viewed as fully functional extensions of the “wired” network. The system must provide both fixed and mobile (100mph) wireless. They must be digital IP based, Mesh, and peer to peer and perform at a minimum of 1Mbps bandwidth with voice, video, and data (“triple play”) capability. Everything must be equally available for, and interoperable with, all responders, residents, businesses, and visitors, including free WiFi for everyone everywhere. Successful wireless communications systems will have a dedicated focus on public safety and multi agency interoperability and must provide IP based voice, video, and data communications. None of the commercially available systems are public safety certified–Norfolk currently uses a commercial service. It is spotty, slow, not secure, does not allow for public safety prioritization, and goes out of service without warning. And this is one of the “best” services available.
The most significant achievement in the city of Norfolk has been the deployment of a comprehensive computer aided dispatch system (CADS) for public safety. The CADS performs in conjunction with the automated vehicle location system (AVL), an optimized emergency vehicle deployment and routing system, the records management system (RMS), which mobilizes police and fire records and the geographical information system (GIS), which provides the latest addresses, building foot prints, and critical data directly to every police and fire unit anywhere, anytime. All this, in consolidation with the new jail management system (JMS), completes the circle of public safety systems interoperability (hereafter jointly referred to as “CADS”). 3. Web Services Central is the data control center which houses the equipment, applications, and personnel needed for authentication of all residents and responders. This is the place where all of the data generated from the two previous sections is collected, warehoused, filtered, cleared, organized, and disseminated. It houses teams of experts to post websites, screen, track, and direct volunteers, and automate processes on the fly. If systems are overloaded during emergencies, this group is responsible to have contingency plans, to accomplish or reestablish peak capacity infrastructure. This function is currently a bureau of the city’s IT Department named the eAccess and process automation bureau. 4. Agreements Central is comprised of teams of professionals responsible for policy, collaboration, and silo and data sharing agreements, arbitration, and mediation. It is a place to maintain and archive the various governance structures and agreements shared among the numerous data sharing agencies; and continually manages relationships with non-profits and other data sharing and service providers. An example is the agreement between the city and Old Dominion University (ODU), allowing campus police to use the city’s public safety frequency; thereby aiding ODU Police with the ability to engage in pursuits off Campus or vice versa. These agreements, or memorandums of understanding (MOU), are more essential to have in place than an action oriented agreement like “mutual aid” agreements. Data sharing involves far more invasive and regulatory “road blocks” than action agreements. They must consider presituational data exchange, cooperative and collaborative agreements, and deal with standards and policies. Hospitals have rules about their data as does the criminal justice system yet it is essential during an emergency that the responders have this vital data and that it is assured of being maintained in a safe secure way. 5. Land Use Services and all it’s associated information is the real business of cities. An address, a point on the ground, is the unique identifier for all infrastructure, service, and safety information. A geographic information system (GIS) is the key to having accurate, timely, interoperable data for every address or point of ground in a jurisdiction and maintaining it by self servicing with a single point of entry is key to homeland security and emergency response. Norfolk uses aerial photography which is updated with a citywide flyover annually. The cameras provide us with a 360E (degree) view of every structure in the city at a 45E (degree) angle. The primary users are fire and police. However, our environmental services team uses it to electronically walk miles of shoreline. This single return on investment alone saved over 1,000 hours of time and boat rental costs; it paid for the entire package. Today over 300 non public safety employees use this system for “normal day to day” non emergency service delivery. This is a prime example of a system that provides for normal and exceptional day to day use and is cost justified for homeland security. This data is also part of CADS. HOMELAND SECURITY ACCOMPLISHMENTS One of the primary goals of the Norfolk Model is to focus on streamlining normal day to day operations with demonstrated returns on investments. If a program that provides homeland security or emergency services does not enhance normal business of the city it is not qualified to meet the vision. The Norfolk Model Vision Working in collaboration with all organizations providing first responder services, establish the technological and organizational infrastructure and capacity for a locally based proactive prevention, mitigation, rapid response and recovery system that continuously meets the full range of needs for any and all emergency, disaster, and homeland security risk situations. The Norfolk Model is comprehensive and all inclusive—it addresses the totality of what actually happens at and during every kind of incident. It allows any city to wrap its arms around all those who provide emergency services and offers to them the infrastructure and resources they need to more effectively fulfill their missions. The better able a city is to redress normal everyday occurrences the better able they are to respond to a terrorist related incident or emergency. The country needs a working model to prove that any jurisdiction that invests in the systems and services as put forth in the Norfolk Model run more efficiently and effectively, their residents will be receiving a higher level of both normal and emergency services, and all this with measurable cost savings and return on their investment Our dream is to build a comprehensive homeland security system–the Norfolk Model–with all the components fully deployed and offer it as a template for all cities and counties nationwide. We’re moving ahead. We invite any and all to join us. |
Hap Cluff is the director of IT for the city of Norfolk and a past contributor to the Virginia Review. For more information: About the City of Norfolk Visit Norfolk on the web at Norfolk.gov. |
