and another one

[ceelove]

Thanks for all the responses about gov't agencies. In return, I give you more questions!

Small, wealthy New England town. Residents start freaking out inexplicably, causing car accidents, enacting violence against each other. What's the protocol, in terms of declaring and enforcing a state of emergency? Does the mayor direct activity? How is the emergency broadcasting service put into effect? What would be the chain of command, to get word to the police and press not to go near the site?

I don't need this to be perfect, but I do want it to have verisimilitude.

Comments

[ocschwar.livejournal.com]

When it comes to suspending the niceties of the 4th & 5th amendments and calling in people with bayonets, that takes the governor.

[warinbear.livejournal.com]

For verisimilitude, unless the cause of the problem is localized (I mean, the Orbital Mind Control Lasers can't target more than ten miles from Pop's Ice Cream Parlor, or something) it's not likely to attract enough attention to get the governor's attention, and he or she would be the one to call out the National Guard, AIUI. If the cause were not localized, it'd be likely outside the governor's jurisdiction before such containment could really come about.

Hmmm. Perhaps a local militia takes it upon itself to re-establish order? Then the media contact and the chain of command would be fairly simple.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

The problem is very localized - a few blocks, I'd say. People start calling 911 on their cell phones to say, "Hey, there's people beating each other up and screaming about seeing devils and having epileptic seizures or something, can you send the police?" But the police, of course, are affected by the problem as well, as are the press. So a state of emergency needs to be declared, to tell people to stay away from the area, since it can't effectively be cordoned off. How does that happen? Does the mayor say, "Okay, all local stations need to broadcast a message"?

Emergency Alert System

[psilocin.livejournal.com]

The Emergency Broadcast System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Broadcast_System) has been superceded by the newer Emergency Alert System (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Alert_System) (EAS).

At WMBR, we have a device which monitors two other local radio stations (WBZ and another one I forget) listening for modem-style tones. When the appropriate tones are broadcast on either of those upstream stations, our EAS unit automatically interrupts our normal programming and rebroadcasts whatever alert message it received from the upstream station.

So the basic idea is that emergency alerts are first broadcast from the local primary stations (such as WBZ). These alerts begin and end with special tones that are detected by equipment at smaller stations, which then rebroadcast the alerts.

It should also be noted that, if someone with tech clue within a radio station wished to bypass the EAS system, it's not too difficult, at least not at a station like WMBR. In fact, a couple of years ago our EAS unit failed during a required weekly test (RWT). It was supposed to interrupt our airchain for only a few seconds to broadcast the test tones, but it cut us off and then croaked. A long-time hippyish DJ at WMBR with minimal technical clue knew how to bypass the unit using our patchbays: similar to ancient phone systems, where you use patch cables to arbitrarily route audio signals.

Other broadcasting outlets have similar requirements. See the Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Alert_System) for more on that. Hope this helps.

Re: Emergency Alert System

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

How do the local primary stations get the message that they're supposed to start broadcasting? Who determines what is broadcast? If the alert is about a fairly local problem (say, in real life, a dirty bomb goes off at an airport), how broadly would the message be played?

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

Re: Emergency Alert System

[psilocin.livejournal.com]

A report (http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL32527.pdf) by CRS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Service) states:

Congress has placed responsibility for civil defense measures that include the present-day EAS with the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) now part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been designated by FEMA to manage broadcaster involvement in EAS. The FCC currently provides technical standards and support for EAS, rules for its operation, and enforcement within the broadcasting and cable industries. FEMA works with the emergency response officials who, typically, initiate an EAS message for a state or local emergency. Non-federal EAS operational plans are developed primarily at the state and local level, often with the participation of FEMA and other federal agencies. The FCC provides rules and guidelines for state EAS plans and many, but not all, states have filed FCC-compliant EAS plans. FEMA advisors often help to integrate EAS usage into emergency alert plans. The decentralized process contributes to uneven planning; for example, procedures for initiating a message and activating EAS differ from state to state.

[...]

[...] For the broadcast of non-federal emergency messages, the FCC has ruled that the broadcasters, not a state or local authority, have the final authority to transmit a message. Historically, the level of cooperation from the broadcasting industry has been high. For example, because state and local governments are not required to upgrade to EAS-compatible equipment -- and therefore may lack direct access to the technology -- broadcasters often volunteer to manage the task of EAS message initiation.

It's also worth noting that the EAS system was not activated on 9/11 (http://www.rwonline.com/reference-room/special-report/rw-eas2.shtml), not even locally in New York or Washington DC. However, in recent years it has often been used for Amber alerts, and in that case the decision to declare an Amber Alert is made by the police organization investigating the abduction. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMBER_Alert)

Good luck!

Re: Emergency Alert System

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Excellent, thanks very much.

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

If it's a range of a few blocks, it's probably stay with the local police for quite a while. Small new england towns (I'm using ours as an example) usu. have one police station and a couple of fire houses. Police trying to deal with it would call for backup, until all the police in town were either busy or affected... then what? Can they call in the state police? those aren't supposed to have jurisdiction off the state highway?

Small new england town... does it have a town council instead of a mayor? Mayors are usually for cities. You might have a town clerk and several town council members around on any given day in the town hall, and a police and a fire chief in their respective stations. My guess is our town has about 20 FT policemen, not all on duty at once. Hm, my guess is the chain would be, police chief realizes he can't deal and calls the state police? Hm. You might research this by interviewing someone actually in this line of work.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that's a lot of help.