A Nation Prepared_Hooper

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Benchmark- A Nation Prepared: Improving Emergency Planning and Practice in the U.S. A Nation Prepared: Improving Emergency Planning and Practice in the U.S. Casey L. Hooper Grand Canyon University: EMM-301 April 19, 2020 1

Benchmark- A Nation Prepared Part I July 20 th , 2012 started as a normal morning for the town of Aurora, Colorado and ended in devastation. The final movie to The Dark Knight Trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises was premiering and expected to draw in a huge crowd. There had been a four year wait between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises being released. This movie was the movie to not only end the trilogy, but be the highest grossing movie of the weekend. It was off to a very good start for Warner Brothers and the lifelong Batman fans, bringing in $161 million during this weekend. Opening weekends are a very prevalent thing for many Americans and movie goers across the world. They are also high value targets for people who are looking to cause mass amounts of damage. Unfortunately, on 20 July 2012 James Holmes was looking to cause such an incident. This incident shook a small Colorado town and flooded people with memories of Columbine. On July 20 th there was an active shooter incident that killed twelve and injured 70 people (CNN, 2019) as well as wreaking havoc across Colorado, it also threw the emergency response agencies into a frenzy. Over the last decade we have had an average of 11.4 active shooter incidents per year. These shootings have left a death toll of over 486 people (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2013). Colorado emergency agencies have had active shooter drills incorporated into their training since the shooting incident that occurred at Columbine High School in 1999. This training allowed for the successful response times and coordination between dispatchers and emergency responders. The first patrol car response time was within two minutes and no more than five minutes for the first fire and rescue truck. These response times are also credited to the time of day, location of the theater, and it being during shift change (TriData and System 2

Benchmark- A Nation Prepared Planning Corporations, 2014). Even with all of the mitigation plans put into place the Aurora emergency responders still ran into issues that caused confusion amongst the ranks. TriData Division System planning completed an after action review (AAR) on this incident to point out the aspects to sustain on and where they could improve. One of the major improves with this incident was for the emergency responders to “establish a unified-joint-command.” This would establish better communication from the top down and through all entities involved. Communication was an issue noted by TriData Division Systems they stated, “critical messages were [misunderstood] between police and fire commanders.” Emergency vehicles had issues maneuvering through the crowded parking lot and this left medical personnel at an idle and caused a delay in being able to treat victims (Pelley & Orr, n.d.). The city of Aurora reviewed the AAR conducted by TriData Division Systems and implemented changes to further improve their preparedness for handling disasters. It brought to their attention, The Office of Emergency Management and outlined what an asset they had with the OEM and that they should be incorporated early on. The OEM could have assisted in establishing a unified command and helped “city coordinators with resource allocations” (Scott, 2014). Communication has been identified as the cause for the majority of the confusion. Police and Fire were working on different channels and not directly corresponding with each other. Aurora has implemented different training exercises for fire and police to include a high-risk extraction protocol for active shooter incidents, they have also pre-programmed radio channels from the fire department into police radios and vice versa, and incorporated psychological help for first responders (Scott, 2014). PART II . 3

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Benchmark- A Nation Prepared As with all natural disasters and emergency situations when the dust settles fingers start getting pointed. The Aurora Theater Shooting is no different, the blame started being pushed towards the theater. There was a civil trial brought against Cinemark, claiming they could have done more in terms of armed security guards and taken other security measures (Otoole, 2016). There were litigations presented from both victims and people who were not directly involved. Their argument was "…that Cinemark, the defendant, made possible the mass shooting by being negligent in the way it operated its movie theaters" (Otoole, 2016). Ultimately the theater was not found liable in the shooting during their civil trial and the case was dismissed in the federal trial. Stricter gun laws are another thing that always get called to the carpet during mass shootings and in the Aurora Theater shooting it was no different. As far as changes that took place after the shooting in Aurora with the theater and security were none. The theater still operates as normal and with the same security measures as it did prior to the shooting. There have been some changes come about as far as having a bigger reach on mental health regulations and there have been stricter gun laws put into play. The President at the time was Obama and he agreed to and implemented 23 executive actions involving gun control and mental health (Engle, 2013). Some measures the movie theaters in general have taken, is to put restrictions on attending in costumes of any kind, as well as having police officers for security where The Dark Knight Rises was being played. Active shooter training has been being taught at different theaters for their staff (Engle, 2013) as well as at different places of employment that could potentially have an active shooter incident. With the AAR conducted after this mass shooting emergency management has used their lessons learned to have better policies implemented in the chance this ever happens again. Emergency responders have become more proactive in acknowledging the amount of chaos that 4

Benchmark- A Nation Prepared that was endured in the first hour of responding to this incident. To eliminate the biggest complication that arose due to the lack of medical training from law enforcement and the support that was given by EMS and firefighters due to the lack of security measures around the area has led to the development of a response framework that has been structured and implemented across the states to allow cross-disciplinary teams to coordinate and allows for a command presence among the different response agencies (Engle, 2013). Emergency managers have the responsibility of teaching the public how to react in incidents such as what happened in Aurora. As an Emergency Manager it is our job to ensure there are trainings in place and that trainings get practiced to aide in response time and citizen actions involving emergency situations and disasters. You have to be able to enable training that is associated with life-saving capabilities and safety. This type of training can improve the outcomes of all involved in disastrous situations. As an Emergency Manager you will never be able to completely stop disasters from happening, you can however mitigate the risks that can be associated with the disasters. 5

Benchmark- A Nation Prepared References: CNN Library, (2019). Colorado Theater Shooting Fast Facts. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2013/01/19/us/colorado-theater- shooting-fast-facts/index.html Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI, (2013). A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States Between 2000 and 2013. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/active-shooter-study-2000-2013-1.pdf TriData Division, System Planning Corporation, (2014). Aurora Century 16 Theater Shooting After Action Report for the City of Aurora, Colorado.Retrieved from https://www.auroragov.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_1881137/File/Residents/Public %20Safety/Police/Public%20Reports%20and%20Crime%20Data/ C16%20AAR.pdfAmerican Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author Pelley, S. & Orr, B. (n.d.). We got an interesting study today of the emergency response to the deadly theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado, back in 2012. CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx? direct=true&db=nfh&AN=32U4024918644CB3&site=eds-live&scope=site 6

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Benchmark- A Nation Prepared Scott, J. (2014). Gunshots at the Century 16: 12 killed, dozens injured in Colorado mass shooting: lessons learned in Aurora Fire Department’s response to theater shootings. Firehouse Magazine, (4), 64. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost- com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx? direct=true&db=edsggo&AN=edsgcl.371690466&site=eds-live&scope=site Otoole, E, (2016). Cinemark ’s Security The Central Question In Aurora Theater Shooting Civil Trial. Retrieved from https://www.kunc.org/post/cinemark-s-security-central-question- aurora-theater-shooting-civil-trial#stream/0 Engle, P. (2013). Here’s What’s Changed In The Years Since The Aurora Theater Shooting. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/what-has-changed-since-aurora-theater- shooting-in-colorado-2013-7 7

A Nation Prepared_Hooper

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