NCJ Number
230196
Editor(s)
Simon Hakim,
Erwin A. Blackstone
Date Published
2009
Length
307 pages
Annotation
This collection of works illustrates important steps that Governors and Mayors have initiated to address the challenges of initial response and recovery efforts after disasters.
Abstract
This book brings together the technological and managerial innovations suggested and applied by the Nation's leading governors and mayors in their own words. It includes models for public-private partnerships to improve preparation for, response and recovery from major natural disasters and terrorist attacks. Sample chapter content includes discussions on: the creation of reserve medical units that can be mobilized in case of an emergency; the establishment of a regional emergency response organization, which included public, private, non-profits, and volunteer groups; liability issues as illegal arrests and improper use of weapons by volunteers; suggestions on how to train volunteers to supplement first responders during an emergency; discussions on how Israel overcomes suicide bombing and other terrorist attacks against civilians; the response to the challenges of sheltering thousands of refugees from Hurricane Katrina; discussions on how the City of Corpus Christi absorbed several thousand of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina, and later evacuated its own residents and the previous evacuees north to safety; discussion on the creation of the Regional Logistics Center that was managed by a private company, establishing a public-private partnership (PPP) to handle more effectively the management of supplies; and finally, discussions on how a PPP established to protect the Port of Oakland, California, and its environs. The book makes specific recommendations of services usually provided by public emergency agencies that are private in nature and could be shed by government while often being provided by the private sector. The book further suggests public services that are under the responsibility of governments but could be delivered more efficiently by contracting them out under competitive conditions and highlights incentives for greater involvement of the private sector in the delivery of emergency services. Index