Palisades Transit Security Newsletter
A Publication by Palisades Group USA
www.palisadesgroup.com/PGUSA
Palisades Consulting Group, Inc.
91 West Clinton Avenue, Tenafly, NJ 07670
Volume 1, Number 6
July 31, 2002
National Update
TRENDS IN TERRORISM PREPAREDNESS
The National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) has published a report, Trends in State Terrorism
Preparedness, and has made the report available online. NEMA recently conducted a survey of states to identify trends in
state terrorism preparedness, including activities both prior to and following the terrorist attacks of September 11. The
report provides a snapshot of domestic preparedness activities and points to common as well as unique approaches.
http://www.nemaweb.org/Trends_in_Terrorism_Preparedness/index.htm
CALIFORNIA’S “RIMS” IS AN INTERNET-BASED SYSTEM USED TO COORDINATE AND MANAGE THE STATE’S
RESPONSE TO DISASTERS AND EMERGENCIES
California's Response Information Management System (RIMS) (http://rimsinland.oes.ca.gov/) automates California’s
Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS). The California Office of Emergency Services (OES) developed
RIMS in 1995 and now over 2,000 internal and external clients access RIMS via the Internet. RIMS is available to all
cities, special districts and state agencies within California that have a computer with access to the Internet. Web access
to RIMS is controlled by user id's and passwords. Web browser clients and Internet access are standard and supported in
nearly every government agency, and those agencies that don’t have access now soon will. RIMS user base has
expanded from 137 agencies to 2500 by developing the internet-based system.
PRACTICAL GUIDES FOR DEALING WITH BIOLOGICAL THREATS, CHEMICAL THREATS AND BOMB THREATS
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency (http://www.state.il.us/iema/index.htm) has published a series of guides for
dealing with biological threats, chemical threats and bomb threats. The following information is being provided to assist
individuals in dealing with telephone threats or suspicious mail. To get more information click on the following links:
How Do I Identify A Suspicious Letter/Package
What Should I Do If I Receive A Suspicious Mailing, Including A Biological Or Chemical Threat
Guide For Handling A Telephone Threat
In addition, IEMA has made available a standardized form for Phone Threats http://www.state.il.us/iema/phonethreat.pdf.
This form may be useful to transit customer service agents at transit call centers.
DOWNLOADABLE POSTERS FOR DEALING WITH CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION
The Maryland Emergency Management Agency has published a series of downloadable posters as a guide to dealing
with Nerve and Blister Agents: http://www.mema.state.md.us/docs/csepp/AgentsSurety1117posters.pdf. The series
also includes a description and illustrations of a standard classification of events under its Chemical Stockpile Emergency
Preparedness Program (CSEPP).
“EMERGING STANDARDS FOR TRANSIT IT SECURITY”: SECOND IN A FOUR-PART NATIONAL
TELECONFERENCE SERIES ON “STANDARDS FOR TRANSIT AND HOMELAND DEFENSE”
The Technical Council of the Transit Standards Consortium (www.tsconsortium.org) will be hosting the second in its
National Teleconference series on “Emerging Standards for Transit IT Security” on Wednesday, August 21, 2002 from
1-2:30 pm, EDT. The teleconference is open to transit, law enforcement, emergency management and other
professionals in other public, private and academic communities. Registration is $125 per session; dues -paying
members of TSC can attend for free. For more information on the program, contact Mark Stewart, Program Manager,
Palisades Security Consulting, at 678-592-2256 or mstewart@palisadesgroup.com or Tom Sullivan, Chair, TSC Technical
Council, at 415-554-3450 or tom.sullivan@tsd.org. For TSC membership information, contact Richard Cox, President of
TSC at 724-772-4013 or rcox@sae.org.
Team Member News
Because of his extensive background in fire response, blood-borne pathogens, detection and evaluation of suspicious
packages and bomb threats, Palisades Team Member Frank Montes de Oca, Supervisor of Training for the Central
Florida Regional Transportation Authority, has been called to duty to train local law enforcement, emergency response,
fire and transit personnel in emergency response to terrorism. In addition to his regular job responsibilities, Frank teaches
terrorism response at Valencia Community College and was recently appointed to National Terrorism Preparedness
Copyright © 2002 Palisades Consulting Group, Inc.
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Institute where he is an Adjunct Instructor. He also recently received a state grant to develop statewide curriculum for bus
hijacking and hostage rescue. He will be bringing different disciplines (law enforcement, emergency, fire, hazmat and
transit) together to get input, and will then develop curriculum in a collaborative fashion. A critical part of grant is to deliver
training in five different locations in Florida. There is also a CD and/or web-based for broader, national distribution
planned.
Palisades Team Member Michael McAfee has been teaching two bus emergency classes a day for the past three weeks
to Louisville Fire & Rescue (all platoons and districts) with important information about buses that might be involved in
emergency situations, e.g., accident, fire, bomb threat, etc. Mike teaches by actually getting on transit buses, over the
road buses (charter), school buses and handicap buses to show firefighters how to enter the bus in a particular situation,
the location of safety hatch, door release, where battery is located, fuel tank, etc.
Palisades Team Director Eva Lerner-Lam will be presenting a talk on transit security issues at The 1st Annual TISP
Congress on Infrastructure Security for the Built Environment (ISBE) will be held on November 5-7, 2002, in
Washington DC. (http://www.tisp.org/isbe/). The ISBE is sponsored by The Infrastructure Security Partnership (TISP),
which has committed to organizing an annual congress to facilitate the sharing of threat intelligence, information, and best
practices among infrastructure professionals. Eva also chairs the new American Society of Civil Engineers’
Transportation and Development Institute’s Transportation Security Committee and will be moderating a session on transit
security at the 9th Annual ITS World Congress on October 14-17, 2002, in Chicago, IL
(http://www.itsworldcongress.org/).
Ask Palisades…
Do you have a question about how to deal with Armed Assault, Hostage Taking, Chemical Release On Board, Explosive
on Board, Chemical Outside, or Explosive/Sabotage Outside? Write us, and we’ll have one of our experts reply in a
subsequent Newsletter.
Palisades Transit Security Newsletter is published twice monthly as a free service to the transit
community.
Publisher: Eva Lerner-Lam (elernerlam@palisadesgroup.com)
Editor-In-Chief: Ellen Thompson (ethompson@palisadesgroup.com)
Contributors:
Said Easa, Ed Fuller, Lee Goldstein, Ken Harvey, Mimi Hwang, Larry Johnson, Halsey King, George
Kovatch, Ronald Libengood, Michael McAfee, Dennis McNeill, Greg Miles, Frank Montes de Oca, Kevin
O’Brien, Al Pierce, Robert Previdi, Russ Rogers, John Schiavone, Bruce Schneider, Mark Stewart,
Barbara Thomson
To Subscribe or Unsubscribe, contact: Newsletter@palisadesgroup.com
A Printer-Friendly copy of this Newsletter can be downloaded from the Palisades Security Team
website: http://www.palisadesgroup.com/PGUSA/Newsletters/July31.2002Vol.1No.6Final.doc
Copyright © 2002 Palisades Consulting Group, Inc.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, contact: Newsletter@palisadesgroup.com