Terrorist scenarios range from lone assassination attempts to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) incidents. The United States has experienced major terrorist attacks, some motivated by international groups, most dramatically the September 11, 2001 attacks, and others domestically with the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995 as the most serious to date. Domestic terrorism, in particular, can be expected to occur at a much more local level than these overwhelming events.

The OA accepts and uses the California Specialized Training Institute (CSTI) definition of terrorism:

The threat or use of violence to inspire fear or terror in support of political, religious, or ideological goals.

Other definitions that may be encountered include:

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - The unlawful use of force or violence committed by a group or individual against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

U.S. Department of State – The premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents. (This considers attacks against military targets to be acts of war.)

The distinction between crisis and consequence management is critical in terms of responsibilities and authorities.

Crisis Management – Primarily a law enforcement function, using measures to anticipate, prevent, and or resolve a threat or act of terrorism. The federal government exercises preeminent authority and responsibility in crisis management. The Federal Bureau of Investigation leads the federal crisis management effort with assistance from other federal, state, and local agencies as necessary.

Consequence Management – Addressing the results of the terrorist act requiring the response of fire, emergency medical, emergency management, and law enforcement personnel. The authority on-scene to make decisions regarding rescue and treatment of casualties and protective actions for the community lies with the local jurisdiction, regardless of the cause of the event.

PLAN MAINTENANCE

This plan will require frequent review. Exercises will be the primary mechanism of testing, reviewing, and updating this plan. The Disaster Council will review it no later than February 1 each year in conjunction with the Emergency Operations Plan.

CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS

The planning process for a Terrorism Event within the OA has identified five broad categories of events that should be considered. They include human health threats (biological and chemical), animal health threats (biological and chemical), infrastructure destruction including WMD, actual attacks on the human population, and possible remote area terrorist training facilities.

Preparing for possible terrorist events involves four areas of focus:

Planning for the potential threat of a terrorist act impacting the OA;

First responder actions when an event initially occurs;

Crisis management to respond to the people committing an act of terrorism; and

Consequence management to respond to the potential or actual effects of the terrorist act.

PLANNING & MITIGATION

PLANNING

The first step is to plan for and mitigate potential terrorist threats within the OA. The threat assessment process has been completed. Several locations have been identified as potential targets. Critical infrastructure, sites with potential for significant loss of life or dramatic damage to property, and government facilities at the local, state and federal levels all have potential. Domestic terrorist threats do exist and examples of these situations occurring in nearby jurisdictions validate the need to include these possible events as part of planning. The rural nature of the OA and the wide expanse of public lands make use of sites as safe houses or training areas for terrorist groups a serious consideration.

Planning needs to include the potential for resource draw or surge impacts on the OA resulting from terrorist attacks on areas adjoining the OA. Examples of impacts would be the mutual aid draw on local law enforcement or fire resources to adjoining jurisdictions and the possibility for population displacement to the OA from populated areas because of terrorist attacks in more metropolitan areas. The Regional Mutual Aid Plans are in place for law enforcement and fire, detailing how assets will be managed within the Mutual Aid Region. The fifty percent draw down policy gives OA guidance on the level of resources that will be held for local response. The same policy applies to mutual aid between jurisdictions within the OA. Ancillary staffing for both dispatching and correctional officer coverage must be planned also.

MITIGATION

Planning for mitigation shows three areas that deserve emphasis. Security plans for local government facilities and a First responder identification system for the OA are work products that are proposed because of the planning process. Both will require resources to meet desired levels. In addition, ongoing training and exercises are needed both for crisis and consequence management. Coordination with a wide range of agencies and jurisdictions has been proven to be crucial to the mitigation of possible terrorism.

The OA is completing ongoing assessments of local infrastructure security. Some of those assessments have resulted in grant monies being spent to deal with infrastructure security issues. General assessments in the OA show that this process needs to continue.

Nearly all of the first responders in the OA are volunteers. Few carry any verifiable form of identification other than certain certification cards. An established system of identification would facilitate security that becomes crucial when an event has a major law enforcement aspect.

Training needs to emphasize awareness of the potential for terrorist events. First responders must be able to recognize the signs in order to initiate proper law enforcement response, protect the crime scene, and, most importantly, to keep them from becoming victims themselves. Training and exercises also allow different agencies and jurisdictions to learn to work together effectively.

Coordination activities are essential to mitigation. The OA must work with local and regional utility providers to facilitate implementation of their security plans. This is particularly important for the utilities that provide services to critical facilities such as local government, hospitals, community health centers and potential infrastructures that will be needed for consequence management in the event of a terrorist incident. Continued cooperation with state and federal entities regarding intelligence gathering will be needed regarding groups that may be present in, targeting, or passing through the OA.

INITIAL RESPONSE

At the time of the initial response, an incident may not even be recognized as terrorist activity. The training emphasis during planning and mitigation should provide an awareness that will increase the odds that first responders will recognize potential terrorist events and protect themselves as well as the crime scene. Responders should always be conscious of the possibility of secondary devices or actions aimed specifically at them. Training will also support rapid implementation of procedures under the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS), particularly the Incident Command System (ICS) element.

Upon arrival at scene, command and control must be identified and a unified command established if appropriate. The initial Incident Command will be determined by the apparent type of incident, often with Fire the lead agency, or potentially a Unified Command with law enforcement and EMS personnel. Rapid execution of the ramp up of needed resources is imperative. As the incident unfolds, the first responder incident command will establish command and control, order resources to carry out the establishment of perimeters, security, and deal with the consequence management of the incident.

As soon as it becomes apparent that the incident may be an act of terrorism, law enforcement becomes a lead player. The Communications Center will be notified to contact the Sheriff. Notifications to the state and federal level will be the responsibility of the sheriff or his acting as soon as a potential terrorist act is recognized. Unified Command will allow both the crisis and consequence management portions to be implemented rapidly with each command function filling the asset needs for their management area.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT

Crisis Management applies measures to identify, acquire, and plan the use of resources needed to anticipate, isolate, prevent, and/or resolve a threat or act of terrorism. In an ideal situation, Crisis Management would be an on going activity and may be the chief mitigation to prevent an occurrence of a terrorist act. Once an incident takes place, Crisis Management would go on concurrently with Consequence Management actions. As soon as the incident is identified as terrorist-related, law enforcement will escalate and focus Crisis Management to deal with that particular event.

The FBI is the lead federal agency for dealing with terrorist incidents and will coordinate with other federal agencies for their expertise and assets as needed at the incident. Incident Command will continue to lie with the local jurisdiction to manage the consequences of the event. The FBI role will focus on the Crisis Management actions.

The FBI role under ICS could be one of several. They may be part of a Unified Command. They may take over as the lead law enforcement agency in the Operations Section. They will wish to establish their own Department or Joint Operations Center at a convenient location. They should have a representative present in the OA Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The single critical element is that they be in constant communications with the incident command, the EOC, and local law enforcement as well as other federal and state agencies.

CONSEQUENCE MANAGEMENT

First Responders will be the front line in dealing with the Consequence Management, which really begins with Initial Response. The type of incident will obviously dictate what response will be needed in the OA. Consequence Management remains the responsibility of the local jurisdiction even after the FBI arrives to take over Crisis Management. FEMA is the lead federal agency for Consequence Management.

Several other annexes within the Emergency Operations Plan will guide management of the incident including the Multi-Casualty and Medical Emergency Plan, the Care and Shelter Plan, and the Communications Plan. The Modoc County Health Department bio-terrorism response plan will also provide guidance to the OA regarding bio-chemical attack should that be necessary.

Consequence Management continues into the recovery efforts. Consequences may include fires to suppress; structural damage requiring safety inspections, stabilization, or demolition; injuries and deaths; rescue situations; hazardous materials contamination; and many other kinds of impacts. Given the definition of “terrorism”, mental health effects are an intended consequence and should be planned for in advance.

PROCEDURES

INCREASED READINESS

The United States has implemented a system for increased readiness on a national level with five threat levels from Green (no threat) to Red (severe). Local jurisdictions can use the national level as an indicator but must determine their own threat level based on information specific to them. Even a level of Red at the national level would not necessarily indicate a significant threat locally. When there is reason to believe there is a potential threat locally, increased readiness procedures should be initiated.

The OA EOP identifies procedures for Increased Readiness that will be followed, as modified for Terrorism threats:

1. Alert the Sheriff/Director of Emergency Services, Undersheriff, and Alturas Police Chief to the situation as soon as information indicates a possible threat of terrorist action.

2. The Director or designee will indicate on a copy of the notification checklist (from the EOP and EOC Operations Manuel) who else should be given the warning and will assign someone to make those notifications. Notifications should include anticipated EOC staff, probable incident commanders, and any affected departments and agencies.

3. The assigned individual will make the notifications as directed and document all attempted contacts.

4. The Director or designee will call a meeting of critical personnel, including Operations and Plans Chiefs. They will prepare an Action Plan, including:

q Identification of a trigger point, in other words one or more occurrences that will indicate to move response from the increased readiness stage into direct action.

q Establish preliminary actions to be taken when the trigger point is reached.

q Provisions for monitoring of the situation.

q Development of a communications plan to notify appropriate agencies and departments when the trigger point is reached.

q Determination of whether to activate the EOC and, if so, of the level of staffing and hours for EOC operations during the increased readiness phase.

q Arrangements for any additional notifications to be made for increased readiness.

q Implement the Action Plan.

q Director or designee will prepare a Declaration of a Local Emergency ready for signature when conditions warrant.

THREATS

Threats may be conveyed by various methods. The recipient may be a trained individual such as a dispatcher or could be whoever handles the mail for an office or answers the phone or greets the public. Any threat of a bomb or other terrorist act should be taken seriously! The recipient must remain calm and gather all the information possible. As soon as possible, the information must be conveyed to the local law enforcement agency. Office staff throughout city and county government should be trained to recognize a threat and handle it appropriately. The Initial Threat Report form (Table 1) should be distributed to all offices and kept in a discrete but convenient location for use if needed.

INCIDENT NOT INITIALLY IDENTIFIED AS TERRORIST

Responders may roll to an incident with no warning that it may terrorist-related. Awareness training should prepare them to identify indicators that an event is out of the ordinary. They should always be conscious of the possibility that an incident may be a trap with secondary devices or actions aimed specifically at them.

As soon as any suspicion arises, the Incident Commander should be sure that the Communications Center is notified and that the Sheriff and, when within the City of Alturas, the Police Chief are informed. Once the possibility of terrorism is identified, procedures for an identified terrorism incident should be followed.

KNOWN TERRORISM INCIDENT

AT SCENE

q Take appropriate precautions at the scene to prevent injury to responders, control the scene, and address consequences. Watch out for secondary devices or actions.

q Involve law enforcement in the Unified Command if they are not already involved.

q Notify the Communications Center immediately.

q Request that the Sheriff and, if appropriate, the Police Chief be contacted.

q Request activation of the EOC and notification of the State and federal authorities.

AT THE EOC

q Activate at an appropriate level for the incident. Refer to the EOP and EOC Manual.

q Notify OES Region III of the activation and the nature of the incident.

q Issue a declaration of local emergency if appropriate.

q Activate related Annexes, eg. Hazardous Materials Response Plan, Multi-Casualty Plan

q Notify all potentially affected departments and agencies.

q Establish communications with the FBI.

q Prepare for influx of state and federal resources.

COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

The Communications Center will assign, as a minimum, a command and tactical frequency to the incident. Green Command will be the assigned command frequency with either Gold or Yellow TAC as the assigned tactical. Grey Net will be assigned to the EOC. Rose Net can be used by law enforcement as a field tactical with a portable repeater established to link back to the Communications Center. Other frequencies, including the City of Alturas Public Works and PD, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and others, would be used for on-going routine business or, field, or department communications.

USE	FREQUENCY	USER
Scene Command and Resource Ordering	GREEN COMMAND	Incident Command Staff
Tactical Operations For Rescue& Fire	GOLD TAC	Fire and LE, Public Works at scene
Tactical Operations, LE Ops	YELLOW TAC	LE, Public Works, and Fire, Traffic and Crowd Control
LE Command	ROSE NET (Repeater)	LE Coordination From Incident to Communications Center
LE Command (Simplex)	BROWN COMMAND	LE Coordination
Medical Command	MED 5,6,7	Medical Destination Control
Medical Tactical	MED 9A	Med Grp Sup, Pt Group Level Transport Grp Sup
Medical Tactical	MED 9B	Med Treatment Personnel
Emergency Ops	GREY NET	EOC Personnel
Interoperability with any MED NET frequency	MED TONE 8	Out-of-OA Medical Resources

DATE/TIME THREAT WAS RECEIVED:
REPORT RECEIVED BY: (name, organization, and phone number or email)
THREAT TRANSMITTED BY: (telephone, fax, email, video, mail, other)
TYPE OF THREAT: (bomb, chemical, biological, radiological, cyber terrorism, hostage situation, other)
VERBATIM CONTENT OF THREAT:
CHARACTERISTICS OF THREAT: (describe caller, describe fax, describe email, describe video, describe mail, etc.)
TARGET (S) OF THREAT: (specified or potential based upon data)
TIMELINES: (When is the event going to occur?)
BRIEF INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF THREAT:
OTHER AGENCIES/ ORGANIZATIONS NOTIFIED OF THREAT:
HAS ANY INDIVIDUAL, GROUP, ORGANIZATION CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY FOR THREAT/EVENT?
IDENTIFIED TERRORIST ACT
INCIDENT NOT INITIALLY IDENTIFIED AS TERRORIST

MODOC OPERATIONAL AREA