Fairfax County Declares September Emergency Preparedness Month

The Board of Supervisors designated September 2010 as Emergency Preparedness Month in Fairfax County.

Pictured above are staff from Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management and Citizen Corps representatives.

"Residents of Fairfax County are encouraged to prepare themselves and their families for emergencies by organizing an emergency supply kit; formulating a personal preparedness plan; becoming knowledgeable about various threats; and becoming involved in preparing their community." (Source: www.fairfaxcounty.gov).

In addition, "the Board of Supervisors designated Aug. 3 as National Night Out in Fairfax County. The Fairfax County Police Department sponsors National Night Out to promote the importance of community-police partnerships, neighborhood safety and public awareness of crime prevention programs."

Calling 911?

The following website provides tips on how to call 911

http://www.wikihow.com/Call-911

Recently an area 911 system was unavailable. That raised the question, if you cannot reach 911 because their system is down, who do you call?

We recommend that you keep a sticker on all your phones with your local police emergency and non-emergency number. The emergency number is often the 911 dispatch center.

In the past, you would have called the operator to connect your call. With all of the services on the internet, it has probably been some time since you called the operator on your telephone.

Now that this service is automated, you rarely speak with a person right away when calling the operator.

Having the police non-emergency number posted by all of your telephones can be a lifesaver, in the event the 911 system goes out in your area. You might also want to have listed the phone number for your local fire station and hospital.

Hopefully this is not a sign of the times - McGruff gets punched by a bus driver.

According to the article, "McGruff the Crime Dog, the stern but beloved police mascot who teaches kids how to stop crime before it happens, became a victim himself this weekend when a Metro bus driver punched him in the face as a stunned group of children watched, authorities said."

The complete article, which goes into further detail and potential charges/history, can be found at:

http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/Metro-bus-driver-takes-bite-out-of-McGruff-the-Crime-Dog-40558982.html

Feedback from Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC) in the Philippines

One of the goals for the volunteer work through the Corporate Service Corps (CSC) was not only to offer the training and exercise evaluation locally, but also enable them to teach others and sustain the work we did this past summer.

It was great to offer training while we were there, but will they use these lessons to teach others?

Last week, we received the following email from a representative of the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC) in the Philippines.

"The activities that we've been through had greatly improved the level of preparedness, response and awareness of the government other private organizations. The Police Regional Office headed by BGen Andres G Caro II had ordered and directed last October that all Chiefs of Police of the 4 Provinces, 9 cities and 46 municipalities to undergo a 3-Day ICS and Crisis Management Training to enhance and improved their level of consequence management in any event. (We) were the main trainers for this.

All is well here and we really appreciate the lessons you imparted to us in the series of activities that we been through. Thank you......."

Move Over For Emergency Vehicles

Lost In The Line Of Volunteer Duty - Tragic Accident

Fairfax County Police Department
Public Information Office
4100 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax, Va. 22030
703-246-2253. TTY 703-204-2264. Fax 703-246-4253
FCPD-PIO@fairfaxcounty.gov
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police
News Release: 08/295/1942/EJA/(6)
October 25, 2008

Missing Police Officer Recovered

Divers located Second Lieutenant Frank Stecco at 12:25 p.m. on Saturday, October 25. He was found in Pohick Bay approximately 100 feet from the point at which he was reportedly last seen. Boats, dogs and divers were actively searching when the discovery was made.

The murky waters and the contours and make-up of the bottom of the bay made this a particularly difficult search. The use of technology aided in searching potential areas where Lt. Stecco may have been. Divers turned to meticulous hand-by-hand searches within a grid pattern. Divers likened this search to dropping a quarter on a football field and attempting to find it by hand.

Colonel David Rohrer, Chief of the Fairfax County Police Department, confirmed the recovery saying, “My heart goes out to Frank’s family; my heart goes out to his police family; and my heart goes out to the community Frank worked in and loved.”

Chief Rohrer called Lt. Stecco a highly decorated member of the department. Lt. Stecco was transported with full honors to include a motorcycle escort to the Medical Examiners Office.

Lt. Stecco was a volunteer role player in a police helicopter water rescue exercise at Pohick Bay Regional Park when he disappeared in the bay at 2:47 p.m. on October 21, 2008. Extensive air, ground and water search and rescue efforts began immediately and continued through the recovery today. Federal, state, and regional public safety and military agencies helped sustain the search, contributing sophisticated detection equipment, expertise, boats, helicopters, specially trained dogs and supplies.

Lt. Stecco joined the Fairfax County Police Department in 1989 and served 11 of his 19 years assigned to the Mount Vernon District station. His bold, proactive style of policing earned the respect and admiration of his peers and supervisors and helped distinguish him as a courageous and selfless officer. He was awarded a Silver Medal of Valor in 1994, a Bronze Medal of Valor in 1997, and a Certificate of Valor in 2000 by the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce for acts of bravery above and beyond the call of duty.

Fueled by his passion and dedication for serving the children and teenagers of the county, Lt. Stecco opted to leave the Mount Vernon district and join the Department’s Youth Services Division just one month prior to his untimely death.

He leaves behind his wife, their three children, and his mother. Details of services to honor Lt. Stecco are not yet available.

Fairfax County Police Programs at Risk - Citizens To Be Directly Impacted

Crime Prevention, APO, VIPS, and other Citizen Programs

At Risk Of Being Impacted

Who Will Answer The Mail?

THIS EVENT HAS

BEEN CANCELLED.

"This is your chance to let your voice be heard. Several services and programs offered by the police department have been offered up to be terminated in order to cover the projected budget shortfall. One of the many purposed cuts includes my position, Crime Prevention. This would be for each district station.

I know we have all worked hard to make Fairfax County a safe place to reside, work and visit. It is my fear that if some of these budget cuts are passed, we would be taking a giant step backward in the fight against crime.

Plan to attend one of the upcoming Community Forums to share your feelings on this matter. Speak out and let the police department and Board of Supervisors know what is important to you." (Fairfax County Crime Prevention Officer).

Please plan to attend one of the following two meetings, along with us, either tonight or tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 22, Lynbrook Elementary School, 5801 Backlick Road,Springfield, 7-9 p.m.

Thursday, October 23, Fair Oaks Church, 4601 West Ox Road, Fairfax, 7-9 p.m.

Most people have no idea what a Crime Prevention Officer does, but they are impacted. Ever send an email to the local police station? It was probably a Crime Prevention Officer that contacted you. Does your community have a Neighborhood Watch Program? That is coordinated through the station Crime Prevention Officer.

Those are just two examples.

"The primary focus of my job is to be a liaison between the citizens of the district and the officers of the Station. I wear many hats, though. The job may sound pretty tame or even lame, but that is not the case.

In actuality, I am busier now than I was when I was a detective assigned to the Criminal Investigations Section. Crime prevention is a very demanding position. Quite a bit of my time is spent with HOA and Neighborhood Watch groups. Helping them with issues that may be present in their community. I also need to stay focused on recent trends within the various patrol areas and alert the citizens to try and prevent future crimes.

On average, I get 75-100 emails a day with requests or questions. This could be from a citizen, an officer or the captain of the station. Some allow a quick response, but some require research. I am also required to attend three to four meetings a week, on average.

Then there are requests for community events. These events are usually in the evening or on a weekend. Again, some are easy to deal with while others require pre-planning.

Yes, I would still have a job if they were to cut this position. That is not an issue. I do enjoy my job. I think that the citizens would be lacking if they were to cut the crime prevention slot, though. A regular patrol officer would not be able to do justice to the program, as it would be too many responsibilities piled upon them, on top of their patrol duties. This would not be fair to that officer or the citizens.

You asked about VIPS. Unless that volunteer worked at least 40 hours a week in Crime Prevention, it would not work. There are many weeks where 60 hours are not enough to do what needs to be done. So unless you have someone without any other obligations, I just do not see it working. I am the APO and VIPS coordinator, as well. So, I know how many hours most of them contribute. There are only one or two that have a lifestyle (i.e.- retired, no kids, etc.) that would allow them to put in the hours needed to do the job. This is not something that could be worked on for a few hours each week. Someone needs to be here and remain current with requests and evolving situations.

If you wish to discuss this further, we can. There are approximately 30 areas of responsibility which my job covers. Under those areas of responsibility there are many sub-headings. An example of this would be:

Neighborhood Watch-
Training
1. Quarterly training held at the station for community members needing training
2. New Watches – help watches get started, provide training

Watch Maintenance
1. Monthly contact and documentation
2. Watch Revitalization- getting inactive Watches started back up
3. Provide new watches with signs and replace any damaged or stolen signs.

Coordinator’s Meetings

Distribution of Information to Watches (and Community as a Whole)
1. News Releases
2. Fliers

E. Address Community Concerns
1. Entering PSA Complaints
2. Meetings upon request

TRAFFIC SAFETY

A. Promote Traffic Watch Program
B. Bicycle Safety Talks/displays
C. Pedestrian Safety talks/displays
D. Aggressive Driving (Laws)
E. Seat Belt talks/displays
F. Station Programs/Initiatives
G. VIN Etching
H. Lobby displays to coordinate with the awareness month/season

So, initially it may not look like a lot on the surface, but once you go below that, there are many areas that need to be focused upon."

What's Your Connection? Newspaper Partners

Recently we have been included in discussions about outreach and getting citizens aware of Citizen Corps programs.

Our community partner discussions fit perfectly to this conversation.

What's Your

When asked, how did I get involved locally with disaster emergency response, the answer was simple. There was a small one paragraph article in the local newspaper. I was unable to attend the first round of classes, but when a similar paragraph appeared several months later, I responded. I had no idea this program existed.

Yesterday, we discussed an article in the Ellenville Journal, a local town newspaper.

It was the Connection Newspapers - The View and the Fairfax Times, were I first read about the CERT program. And through the CERT program learned about the many programs offered through the Citizen Corps.

Earlier in the year, we spoke with the local newspapers who were very interested in including this public information as a story. It is very similar to the paragraph articles, like child safety seat inspections, they include from the Police Department.

The next time you struggle how to balance funding issues with reaching out to new members of your community, consider having a conversation with your hometown newspaper. That no cost conversation can go a long way. Thing of the reach this could have, as many hometown papers are delivered to the driveways of most residents in the community.

This may just get others started on the path of emergency preparedness and volunteering in their own neighborhoods. And might not even cost your organization a dime.

No Cost Internet For Awareness - You've Been Exposed

As we continue to think about partners or ways to increase awareness at no cost, we spent a few minutes to see where Neighbors Helping Neighbors (http://citizencorps.blogspot.com/) has appeared on the internet over the past year.

Here are some of the places articles or references can be found.

GOVERNMENT WEBSITES

Ready.gov

Department of Homeland Security
National Citizen Corps
Virginia Department of Emergency Management
Nebraska Deparment of Education
Samal City Government
Fairfax County Government

INDUSTRY MAGAZINES

Government*Horizons
Homeland Defense Journal

CONFERENCES

World Conference on Disaster Management

National Conference on Community Preparedness

Showcase Ontario

ASSOCIATIONS

International Association of Emergency Managers

National Organization on Disability

Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations

Volunteer Fairfax

NEWSPAPERS

Washington Post

All Voices

Fairfax Times

Connection Newspapers

SOCIAL NETWORKING

Facebook

LinkedIn

Second Life

SAMPLE BLOGS

Anniston Star Police
St. Charles County Citizen Corps Council
Fairfax County CERT
Mindanao Bloggers
American In Davao

General Santos

Dr. Dorodny

Can a computer catch a criminal?

The New York Police Department (NYPD) leverages technology to help fight crime. Is it a data warehouse? Or a true integrated solution.

The following article "Stopping Crime in Real Time" from Police Chief Magazine, highlights, NYPD "...knew that properly implemented technology could reduce police officers' reliance on paper reports and non-integrated databases to identify crime patterns, thus allowing officers to focus on what they do best: solving crimes and apprehending criminals."

The Real Time Crime Center Video highlights the true value of this solution.

Should emergency response volunteers be background checked?

When talking about background checks, two of the main concerns are often the cost and the time that it takes a person to process it.

If a volunteer is wearing a vest from your jurisdiction, does the public make the assumption they have been checked?

So, what do some organizations do?

Lets look an organization that has been doing this type of volunteer work for a long time. The America Red Cross background checks their
volunteers - through a service http://www.mybackgroundcheck.com/

Organizations, such as Volunteer Fairfax, have also asked related questions on their blog - http://askanagency.blogspot.com/2008/03/background-checks.html

Is the assumption made by people in other agencies that volunteers have the same credentials as other volunteers?

Should all volunteers in an organization have background checks or just some? And is it then assumed all have gone through background checks?

If a police volunteer is working side by side with a fire volunteer who is working side by side a spontaneous volunteer, is it just assumed they have gone through a check (and similar training)?

What about if one jurisdiction does a background and the neighboring one does not, is it just assumed that everyone is background checked?

If you answered no to many or any of these questions, you may want to ask around. It is probably not the norm.

The next time you have a volunteer look after your children, might you want to ask some of these questions?

And the Nominees from Citizen Corps Council Programs

In addition to the record number of Fairfax County Volunteer Service Award Benchmark Award Winners, the Citizen Corps Council would also like to acknowledge the following Community Leadership Nominees:

Community Leadership

William Ridgeway - Fairfax County Auxiliary Police
Michael Shochet - Police Chaplains Unit
Donna Spiewak - Fairfax County Police Department

For any nominees that may have been left off the above list or to see the complete list of all nominees, please visit:

http://www.volunteerfairfax.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=348