[EAS] Mountain Lion Alert

[Botterell, Arthur@CalOES]

Public safety folks generally aren't trained in public warning... a serious problem in my view.  Emergency managers typically get only very superficial training, usually related to individual warning technologies rather than the general psychology and sociology of the warning process.  Which is problematic in the age of NIMS because the folks who really need to be able to issue warnings are typically Incident Commanders in the field, not EMs in a bunker (assuming they're even there at the time.)

Anyway, I'm not sure that NWS is widely seen as the governing agency for EAS.  The IPAWS folks have a good online course, based largely, I believe, on an earlier NWS course, which is required for IPAWS applicants.  But like most online courses it's an introduction and overview at best.  Doubtful if many students come away with a durable set of event-code definitions in their heads.  And on the face of it "Law Enforcement Warning" sounds very much like a source criterion... something like CRM might have been more mnemonic if that's what was intended.

But ultimately I'm not persuaded there's any actual way to make it work.  We need to learn the lessons and move on.

Art

-----Original Message-----
From: EAS [mailto:eas-bounces at radiolists.net] On Behalf Of Sean Donelan

On Thu, 15 Jun 2017, Botterell, Arthur at CalOES wrote:
> Yet another example of what I keep saying.  BTW, where is it actually written that LEW is only for alerts about dangerous criminal activity?  Not only are the SAME codes prone to ambiguity, but they're not terribly well documented, either.

The National Weather Service  created some training classes several years ago.  I don't know if any emergency managers took the courses though.

https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcourses.comet.ucar.edu%2Fmod%2Fimscp%2Fview.php%3Fid%3D1469&data=02%7C01%7Carthur.botterell%40caloes.ca.gov%7C5d0b7badb3e043754e0808d4b41bfe65%7Cebf268ae303647149f69c9fd0e9dc6b9%7C0%7C0%7C636331479712030206&sdata=yZl%2B6tIZ3L%2Fo%2BCwu0C88LMMxQ1HF7VugTNUwrxYIXA4%3D&reserved=0

HazCollect Principles and Non-Weather Emergency Message (NWEM) Best Practices

https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcourses.comet.ucar.edu%2Fpluginfile.php%2F2281%2Fmod_imscp%2Fcontent%2F1%2Fnwe02%2F03nwe02.htm&data=02%7C01%7Carthur.botterell%40caloes.ca.gov%7C5d0b7badb3e043754e0808d4b41bfe65%7Cebf268ae303647149f69c9fd0e9dc6b9%7C0%7C0%7C636331479712030206&sdata=NclYmoQTPJYG0EbrrM5IIKU7WzxNUIvMpoD30GJwl%2F8%3D&reserved=0

Law Enforcement Warning (LEW)
Description: A warning of an event involving criminal activity that is an imminent threat to public safety.

Examples may include bombing, riot, escaped prisoners, active shooter, etc.

Kidnapping, although criminal, is handled through the Child Abduction Emergency (CAE) product.

Note: The warning type does not relate to the source of the warning, but to the type of threat. For example, in a small county, a local sheriff may be the source for all warnings. Even though a sheriff is a member of law enforcement, he should use the appropriate NWEM based on the hazard involved in the event, not the LEW. Conversely, an emergency manager may be authorized to issue all warnings for a jurisdiction, and may use the Law Enforcement Warning if warranted by the situation.