Public Safety Agencies Research Articles

THE INSTITUTIONAL COMPETENCIES OF THE STATE PUBLIC SAFETY AGENCIES OF GOIÁS AND THEIR PROPENSION TO RESPOND TO DISASTERS

This article seeks, based on a review of the institutional competencies of state public safety agencies, to relate these competencies to the propensity of each agency to be activated in the event of disasters. A survey of the legislation was carried out, especially of the public safety agencies of the State of Goiás, outlining their competencies from the provisions of the Federal Constitution, in addition to a brief bibliographic review on disaster response. In the treatment of the four state public safety institutions provided for in the Brazilian Constitution, it was evident that, due to its institutional competencies, the Military Fire Department is the agency most likely to be activated in response to disasters. Thus, it is possible to take a look at the institutions, including in the sense of formulating organizational policies aimed at providing care to professionals.

Ruby Princess case study: a systems thinking analysis of COVID-19, cruise ships and Australia’s response

PurposeThe COVID-19 pandemic tested leadership in chaos and complexity and resulted in many lessons learnt in the process. One such opportunity was the cruise ship Ruby Princess “mishap” in Australia which resulted in the failure to quarantine the virus onboard the cruise ship thus allowing transmission into the Australian community. The purpose of this paper is to use the Ruby Princess as a case study and apply a systems thinking analysis to it.Design/methodology/approachWhilst many inquiries and commissions have documented the failings of the agencies or “systems” involved in the Ruby Princess, the Ruby Princess case study provides a suitable example for the application of systems thinking analysis. The paper proceeds by identifying the various agencies either directly or indirectly involved in the Ruby Princess disaster and groups them based on the system they represented (state; federal; international or cruise-based system). These systems were mapped providing a visual representation of the complexity of the landscape in which police and public safety agencies had to operate in to respond to the Ruby Princess.FindingsOver 30 agencies were found to be either directly or indirectly involved in the Ruby Princess. Following the application of systems thinking analysis, it was clear that the various systems were operating in silos, thus failing to fully exploit the interconnections between and within all the systems which ultimately resulted in the Ruby Princess.Practical implicationsThe results of this analysis have informed a series of recommendations for leadership development within similar contexts, including embracing a systems thinking approach.Originality/valueUsing the Ruby Princess as a case study, this article presents a novel approach through the application of systems thinking and how it can enhance a leader’s ability to navigate the current “new normal” operating environment. It highlights the importance of public safety leadership moving away from an insular systems focus towards more of a public sector partnership which is an imperative for police and other public safety agencies to navigate through times of complexity and chaos.

The impact of operational police stress on affective commitment: the mediating role of psychological safety

PurposePolice stress is a critical concern for public safety agencies. This study proposes a research model to examine the relationship between police operational stress and affective commitment, mediated by psychological safety.Design/methodology/approachA survey was developed and administered to law enforcement professionals from two large police agencies in a Midwestern US state and Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil.FindingsThe results suggest the research model applies similarly in both countries. A significant relationship between police operational stress and lower affective commitment was found. Psychological safety mediated this effect, suggesting its importance in mitigating stress. The focus on psychological safety offers valuable insights for understanding officer well-being in high-stress environments.Research limitations/implicationsQualitative methods might be used to help better understand the contextual elements around police stress and its consequences. Results indicate that supportive work environments that foster psychological safety can be a powerful tool to buffer the negative effects of stress and promote officer well-being and retention.Practical implicationsA comprehensive understanding of the psychological factors influencing officer morale and engagement is essential for developing interventions to enhance law enforcement effectiveness. Psychological safety helps create a supportive work environment, reducing stress’s negative impact on officer commitment.Originality/valueThis study makes a distinctive contribution by examining the mediating role of psychological safety in the relationship between operational stress and affective commitment among police officers in two countries. Building upon prior research that has examined the impact of stress and psychological safety, this study is among the first to investigate how psychological safety specifically mitigates the negative impact of stress on officer commitment.

Railroad safety: A systematic analysis of Twitter data

Railroad safety is a universal goal all over the world, which is continually facing challenges. For example, the U.S. railroad trespasser casualties excluding highway-rail incidents, but including suicide incidents, increased by 65% from 765 in 2011 to 1261 in 2020, according to the data from the Federal Railroad Administration in U.S. To improve railroad safety of the public, efforts are needed from all stakeholders that are related to railroad incidents, including the general public, government, public safety agencies, railroad companies, and first responders, etc. Social media usage of those stakeholders shed light on their perceptions, beliefs, and behaviors toward rail safety. However, few studies across the world have conducted social media analysis for railroad safety, e.g., railroad trespassing issues. To fill the knowledge gaps, in this paper, tweets related to railroad safety in the past 5 years (93,239 tweets) were collected and analyzed via user analysis, retweet analysis, BERTopic modeling techniques, sentiment analysis, emotion analysis, and hashtag and mention analysis. The user analysis showed that stakeholders related to railroad safety used Twitter in our dataset, however, there are significantly inconsistent efforts among those stakeholders in terms of using Twitter for delivering messages on railroad safety. Retweet analysis, sentiment and emotion analysis all showed that Twitter users used tweets to inform the public of railroad safety knowledge and express their concerns. The major rail safety topics (with at least 100 tweets per topic) discussed on Twitter were related to safety culture, teaching children railroad safety, removing headphones, walking illegal tracks, and emergency notification. The contributions of this paper lie into identifying benefits and potential of using social media for informing general public of railroad safety knowledge, understanding general public’s concerns, beliefs and attitudes toward railroad safety, and demonstrating the existing status of railroad related stakeholders in terms of their usage of social media for railroad safety. The identified inconsistent efforts from different stakeholders may suggest the barriers to the use of social media for railroad safety are related to government or organizational policies and social media strategies or missions. We believe that leadership support from government agencies and organizations, and the partnership between different stakeholders is the key to promoting social media for railroad safety.

INTEGRATED PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICE CENTERS IN MATO GROSSO DO SUL: A SERVITIZATION PROPOSAL

This paper aims to analyze the concept of servitization and its application in the public sector, specifically in the area of ​​public safety. The objective is to demonstrate the potential benefits of implementing Integrated Public Safety Service Centers in Mato Grosso do Sul, applying the concept of servitization and the philosophy of Community Policing. The research uses a qualitative approach and describes the attributions of public safety agencies in the State, presents theoretical foundations on Community Policing and servitization, and presents examples of integrated public safety service in other states of Brazil and in Mato Grosso do Sul itself. The expected result is the proposal to implement a new model of public safety service provision in the State.

(322) The COVID-19 Pandemic and Outpatient Follow-up of Victims of Sexual Violence in a Public Health Service in Northeast Brazil

Abstract Introduction Before the pandemic context, domestic violence was already considered a violation of human rights with high visibility worldwide. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the adoption of preventive measures such as social distancing and prioritization of care for cases of the disease in health units, there was a lack of care for other health issues, such as assistance to women victims of violence. Objective To analyze how the repercussions of the pandemic context and the measures to combat SARS-CoV-2 affected the follow-up of women victims of sexual violence assisted in a reference service in Northeast Brazil. Methods Qualitative analysis with a descriptive character. A semi-structured interview and simple observation were used. To complement the data, bibliographic and documental research were carried out. Bardin's content analysis was adopted. A convenience sample was used, which resulted in 14 women, and data saturation. As inclusion criteria, they were older than 18 years old, attended by the service between March and November 2020, attended at least one appointment and who freely agreed to participate. Male and under 18 years old patients were excluded. Results In 2020, there was a reduction in appointment bookings (24%) and outpatient visits (27%) compared to the same period in 2019. Regarding the sample, 64.28% were between 19-39 years old, the majority declared themselves brown /black (50%) and being single (71%). About 36% had completed high school, the same percentage that was unemployed. Half (50%) of the interviewees did not receive social or social security benefits and lived in a rented house (50%). Most did not know about the service offered and found out from the referral of friends or a public safety or health agency that they sought as a result of the episode of sexual violence. Regarding the pandemic context and outpatient follow-up, it was noted that many mentioned the decrease in the supply of transport and also made reference to the fear of leaving home and being contaminated. A factor greatly reinforced by the interviewees was the economic risk that the pandemic brought to the routine, whether due to formal unemployment or the impediment to carrying out their autonomous activities. In this context, economic insecurity was cited as one of the recurring reasons for not attending appointments. Questions were also asked about the understanding and evaluation of multidisciplinary care and a positive response was received, validating the intersectoral work developed in the service. Conclusions Violence is a dynamic that is constantly being reformulated, due to the historical context. The decrease in demand and increase in absenteeism were linked to fear of contamination, financial difficulties and lack of knowledge about the service. Actions to improve surveillance and management of sexual violence must be an essential part of the fight against COVID-19. Disclosure No

Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program expansion evaluation—A qualitative study

AbstractResearch SummaryWe conducted a multisite qualitative evaluation of the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP) expansion states that received federal funding in 2019 to measurably augment, adopt, and/or use ODMAP in their service areas. Across five states, 11 agencies including law enforcement agencies, county health departments, and local health coalitions were invited to participate in in‐depth interviews to assess their experiences with ODMAP implementation, including facilitators, barriers, and best practices. Guided by implementation science principles and the Practical, Robust Implementation and Sustainability Model framework, we identified 12 key elements impacting progress toward ODMAP expansion, including the importance of leveraging interorganizational partnerships, competing environmental priorities, organizational perspectives on readiness for adoption, usability, and burden, organizational leadership support, and the presence of champions, dedicated implementation teams, and key adopter supports.Policy ImplicationsSince 2016, ODMAP has rapidly expanded in response to the opioid crisis. The system is currently used by a wide range of public safety and public health agencies including multiple state and county jurisdictions funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Overdose Data to Action program. Ongoing, critical, and innovative evaluation of this nascent surveillance system is required.

5G New Radio for Public Safety Mission Critical Communications

Driven by increasing demands on connectivity to improve safety, situational awareness and operational effectiveness for first responders, more and more public safety agencies are realizing the need of modernization of their existing non-3GPP networks. 3GPP based cellular networks offer the unique opportunity of providing fast, reliable, and prioritized communications for first responders in a shared network. In this article, we give an overview of service requirements of public safety mission critical communications. We identify key technical challenges and explain how 5G new radio (NR) features are being evolved to meet the emerging safety critical requirements, including enabling connectivity everywhere, supporting efficient group communications, prioritizing mission critical traffic, and providing accurate positioning for first responders.

Maine's Overdose Prevention Through Intensive Outreach, Naloxone and Safety (OPTIONS) Initiative.

This article outlines the successes, barriers, and lessons learned in implementing the Overdose Prevention Through Intensive Outreach, Naloxone and Safety (OPTIONS) initiative in Maine during its first year. With leadership from the Governor's Office, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Public Safety, the Office of Behavioral Health contracted with behavioral health organizations to hire and provide supervision for 16 clinicians. These behavioral health clinicians, known as OPTIONS liaisons, were each assigned to provide services for one county in the state and were embedded within a public safety agency. A technical assistance team was also assembled to assist in guiding implementation and improving this public health and public safety partnership.

Comparing Practices Used in Overdose Fatality Review Teams to Recommended Implementation Guidelines.

Objectives:Overdose fatality review teams are a public health and public safety collaboration that reviews fatality cases using a multidisciplinary team to provide recommendations for overdose prevention. No research exists on the case review practices currently being used in these programs.Design:We administered a cross-sectional survey measuring case review practices and perceptions to a convenience sample of overdose fatality review teams.Setting:We administered the online survey to participants at a national virtual forum on overdose fatality review.Participants:In this study, we examined 30 county-level overdose fatality review teams from 6 states who completed the survey.Main Outcome Measures:We developed measures of case review practices from an overdose fatality review implementation guide. We provided descriptive statistics on the survey items used to measure these practices and examined how practice uptake varied by overdose fatality review team characteristics.Results:Most overdose fatality review teams had adequate representation and membership, but none adhered to all of the practices measured from the implementation guide. The largest gap was in perceived effectiveness and implementation of case review recommendations. In addition, teams that had been reviewing cases for longer reported more adherence to recommended practices.Conclusions:Overdose fatality case review is a collaboration between local public health and public safety agencies that holds great promise. However, these teams will require additional training and technical assistance with local community support to ensure that recommendations are actionable.

Improving Partnerships Between Public Health and Public Safety to Reduce Overdose Deaths: An Inventory From the CDC Overdose Data to Action Funding Initiative.

Rates of drug overdose deaths are high and growing. Innovative strategies, such as partnerships between public health and public safety (PH/PS) agencies, are needed to curb these trends. Support for PH/PS partnerships as an overdose prevention strategy is growing; however, little information exists on the makeup of activities within this strategy. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) cooperative agreement supports innovative and comprehensive overdose surveillance and prevention activities across the United States. Within OD2A, funded states, counties/cities, and territories may implement PH/PS partnerships to reduce overdose deaths. An inventory of PH/PS activities described in OD2A recipients' year 2 annual progress reports was conducted. These activities were abstracted for PH/PS partners' roles, intended audience, deliverables, objectives, stage of overdose risk addressed, and type of strategy implemented. The inventory revealed that 49 of the 66 funded jurisdictions planned 109 PH/PS activities. Most aimed to bridge knowledge, data, and service gaps and intervened at higher levels of overdose risk. This analysis highlights opportunities to adapt and expand cross-sector overdose prevention efforts across the overdose risk continuum.

Assessment of Indiana Unmanned Aerial System Crash Scene Mapping Program

Many public safety agencies in the US have initiated a UAS-based procedure to document and map crash scenes. In addition to significantly reducing the time taken to document evidence as well as ensuring first responder safety, UAS-based mapping reduces incident clearance time and thus the likelihood of a secondary crash occurrence. There is a wide range of cameras used on these missions, but they are predominantly captured by mid-priced drones that cost in the range of $2000 to $4000. Indiana has developed a centralized processing center at Purdue University that has processed 252 crash scenes, mapped using 29 unique cameras, from 35 public agencies over the past three years. This paper includes a detailed case study that compares measurements obtained from a traditional ground-based real-time kinematic positioning base station and UAS-based photogrammetric mapping. The case study showed that UAS derived scale errors were within 0.1 ft (3 cm) of field measurements, a generally accepted threshold for public safety use cases. Further assessment was done on the 252 scenes using ground control scale error as the evaluation metric. To date, over 85% of the measurement errors were found to be within 0.1 ft (3 cm). When substantial errors are identified by the Purdue processing center, they are flagged for further dialog with the agency. In most of the cases with larger errors, the ground control distance was incorrectly measured, which is easily correctable by returning to the scene and performing new distance control measurements.

Analysis of Route Choice During Planned and Unplanned Road Closures

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Alternate Route Handbook proposes guidance to identify alternate routes during planned and unplanned road closures. A challenge with this process is the lack of traffic data available to decision-makers. High volume corridors experiencing unplanned closures can provide a rich case history by systematically collecting connected vehicle (CV) data during such incidents. CV data provide the ability to directly measure actual diversion routes and travel times during an ongoing or historical incident. This paper presents methodologies to systematically analyze diversion data to identify the most common alternate route choices and impacted interstate exits, valuable information for public safety and transportation agencies to evaluate the surrounding road network’s resiliency in accommodating diverting traffic. Agencies can use this information to proactively deploy resources (officers, signs, barricades) at critical locations during future closures. The scalability of this methodology is demonstrated by evaluating 12 additional cases to assess diversion rates found to be in the range of 58% to 93% for total closures exceeding five hours. The paper concludes by recommending agencies apply these methodologies to develop data-driven diversion strategies on critical routes coupled with real-time CV monitoring in dispatch centers to provide agile adjustment of resources along diversion routes.

The Armed Forces in the fight against COVID-19 in Brazil: pandemics as a theme of the Defense and Security Agendas

Fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil required actions from the Federal Government, through its Ministries and Local Authorities. The Armed Forces were called upon by the Ministry of Defense to act in Operation COVID-19, which began in March 2020. In total, 10 (ten) Joint Commands were created for the integrated use of the means of logistics, intelligence, and communications, in support to public health and safety agencies. In addition to these Joint Commands, the Aerospace Command, which is permanent, provided support to the other commands. The present work aimed to study the performance of the Armed Forces in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing issues related to interoperability, integration between civilians and military personnel, and impacts on the operation of the Armed Forces. The questionnaire was applied to Joint Commands members, both military and civilian. The study found that the Brazilian Armed Forces have a great capacity for mobilization, as evidenced by the numbers and diversity of the activities performed. The interoperability and relational capability of the military provided agility and integration in actions. However, suggestions and opportunities for improvement to increase the readiness of the Armed Forces and the State itself in similar situations were pointed out.

Cops, Clinicians, or Both? Collaborative Approaches to Responding to Behavioral Health Emergencies.

How a community responds to behavioral health emergencies is both a public health issue and social justice issue. Individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis often receive inadequate care in emergency departments (EDs), boarding for hours or days while waiting for treatment. Such crises also account for a quarter of police shootings and >2 million jail bookings per year. Racism and implicit bias magnify these problems for people of color. Growing support for reform provides an unprecedented opportunity for meaningful change, but solutions to this complex issue will require comprehensive systemic approaches. As communities grapple with behavioral health emergencies, the question is not just whether law enforcement should respond to behavioral health emergencies but how to reduce unnecessary law enforcement contact and, if law enforcement is responding, when, how, and with what support. This policy article reviews best practices for law enforcement crisis responses, outlines the components of a comprehensive continuum-of-crisis care model that provides alternatives to law enforcement involvement and ED use, and offers strategies for collaboration and alignment between law enforcement and clinicians toward common goals. Finally, policy considerations regarding stakeholder engagement, financing, data management, legal statutes, and health equity are presented to assist communities interested in taking steps to build these needed solutions.

Report on an Analytic Network Process (ANP) Model to Estimate the Benefits, Opportunities, Costs, and Risks (BOCR) that Gun Policies and Violence Prevention Interventions have on Legal Users of Firearms

Balancing public good with individual rights is a difficult task; gun policies attempt to do just this. To ensure public safety, local, state, and federal agencies piece together policies that each entity believes will meet the needs of public welfare. When legislating new gun policies, the impact the policies have on gun owners are perceived as a zero-sum game; some groups are perceived to gain while others think they are losing, but the reality is much more nuanced. The reason the impact of these policies on all lawful gun owners has been considered a zero-sum game is largely because to date there has been no research measuring the impact. Further, there have been no attempts to quantify the impact that the policies have on lawful gun owners. The sole argument that has been made is about constitutionality. In this paper, we develop an approach based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The approach allows us to develop criteria for evaluating the impact of these policies on lawful gun owners and generate priorities for the criteria from pairwise comparisons. Criteria are compared in pairs, thus the term pairwise comparisons. This allows us to score, as with a scorecard model, gun policies for various types of gun owners with respect to the criteria according to the Benefits, Opportunities, Costs, and Risks, thereby determining the impact of each policy.

Enabling Next-Generation Public Safety Operations with Mission-Critical Networks and Wearable Applications

Public safety agencies have been working on the modernization of their communication networks and the enhancement of their mission-critical capabilities with novel technologies and applications. As part of these efforts, migrating from traditional land mobile radio (LMR) systems toward cellular-enabled, next-generation, mission-critical networks is at the top of these agencies’ agendas. In this paper, we provide an overview of cellular technologies ratified by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to enable next-generation public safety networks. On top of using wireless communication technologies, emergency first responders need to be equipped with advanced devices to develop situational awareness. Therefore, we introduce the concept of the Internet of Life-Saving Things (IoLST) and focus on the role of wearable devices—more precisely, cellular-enabled wearables, in creating new solutions for enhanced public safety operations. Finally, we conduct a performance evaluation of wearable-based, mission-critical applications. So far, most of the mission-critical service evaluations target latency performance without taking into account reliability requirements. In our evaluation, we examine the impact of device- and application-related parameters on the latency and the reliability performance. We also identify major future considerations for better support of the studied requirements in next-generation public safety networks.

Check on your people, they need it

We often talk about officer or employee health and wellness as a footnote or one of many programs we offer our organizations. Don't get me wrong; there are plenty of agencies that have fully invested in wellness and prevention programs, but the majority of police and public safety agencies are faced with the same challenges: limited funding, limited personnel, or both.

Nothing is consistent — except change

For more than a year, leaders of college and university public safety agencies have grappled with the same extraordinary conditions their institutions were forced to adjust to due to the pandemic. Challenges to very familiar workloads, trends, and events have given way to radically different service demands, processes, and duties that had long been well outside of protecting and serving the students, faculty, staff, and visitors of campus.

COVID-19 Exposure Tracking Within Public Health & Safety Enterprises: Findings to Date & Opportunity for Further Research.

We aggregated data from four (4) different EMS documentation systems across twelve (12) states using the MEDIVIEW BEACON Prehospital Health Information Exchange. We then outputted lists of charts containing critical ICD-10 values that had been identified by the WHO, the CDC, and the Los Angeles County Fire Deptartment's EMS Bureau as inclusion criteria for possible signs, symptoms, and clinical impressions of COVID-19 infection. Three important results emerged from this study: (1) a demonstration of frequent exposure to possible COVID-19 infection among Mobile Medical (EMS & Fire) care providers in the states whose data were included; (2) a demonstration of the nervousness of the general population, given that calls for help due to possible COVID-19 based on symptomology exceeded the number of responses with a correlating "provider impression" after an informed clinical assessment; and (3) the fact that this study was empowered by a public-private partnerships between a technology startup and numerous public health and public safety agencies, offers a template for success in rapidly implementing research and development collaborations. This study incorporates data from only (a) twelve (12) states, and (b) four (4) Mobile Medical documentation systems. We sought to combat these limitations by ensuring that our sample crosses agencies types, geographies, population demographics, and municipal environments (i.e., rural vs. urban). Other studies have noted that EMS agencies are tasked with transporting the "sickest of the sick." We found that PPE is particularly essential where the frequency of encounters between potentially-or actually-infected patients is high, because from Los Angeles County to rural Texas, without sufficient protection, public health and public safety agencies have become microcosms of the communities they are meant to protect. Indeed, data from the first six months of the declared pandemic in the U.S.A. show that intra-departmental spread is one of (if not the) riskiest sources of infection among Mobile Medical professionals.