Have You Seen These

There Is No Silver Bullet

I just got back from the Oregon Emergency Medical Services conference in Salem, where I talked about the use of social media for crisis communications. After the three presentations I asked one of the conference coordinators if he had heard ...

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1.5 Hours Is Now 1.5 Days

A videotaped interview of four government employees responsible for handling public information functions after the August 24, 2014 Napa, California earthquake reveals real challenges and inherent conflicts between quickly informing the public, fulfilling incident command responsibilities and ensuring the safety ...

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Thoughts on Crisis Comms Leadership

Preaching about the use of social media tools during crisis is much easier than actually doing it. Especially for smaller agencies with limited staff. But, does that mean it can’t be done? Absolutely not. Because of the recent Ferguson, Missouri ...

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Deafening Silence In Ferguson

Over the past two days I’ve closely followed the civil unrest in the small enclave of Ferguson, Missouri, a small suburb outside of St. Louis. A Ferguson police officer shot and killed a young African American male after some type ...

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There’s Ebolota Shakin’ Going On

Ebola, the nasty hemorrhagic fever virus described in detail in Tom Clancy’s 1996 book Executive Orders, caused a fair amount of public consternation in the U.S., and for good reason.  The latest outbreak in the African countries of Guinea, Liberia and ...

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My Trip Across The Pond

My wife and I recently celebrated our 30 year wedding anniversary with a trip to Ireland. To say it was an unbelievably fun trip would be an understatement. I won’t bore you with the details, but instead will summarize with ...

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SMACSS Strikes Again Y’all

Dave Statter once again highlights the idiocy of a firefighter who thinks his social media posts are benign and private commentary on their lives. Gimme a break! Here is the latest victim of SMACSS (Social Media Assisted Career Suicide Syndrome), ...

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It’s All About APPEARANCE. Never Forget It.

Cops vs. firefighters strikes again. Dave Statter (@Statter911) recently posted a citizen video of a police officer “assisting” a citizen out of his overturned vehicle. The video, shown here, APPEARS to show a vehicle on its side underneath a presumably compromised overhang struck by said vehicle.

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Syncing Command and Collaboration

Commander or collaborator? In the realm of managing emergency incidents both functions have to happen to make emergency incidents safely go away. Yet, we always assign an “incident commander”, someone responsible – organizationally and legally – for the emergency response. ...

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