Low-Cost Ways to Improve Your Campus Security
First responders such as local police and EMS personnel should have a blueprint of the buildings on your campus and a plan for responding to emergencies there. You should invite local emergency officials to your campus and give a summary of aspects of the campus that make it unique from an emergency response standpoint.
Players in emergency response should learn about existing buildings and be involved in the design plans for future buildings. As Michael Dorn wrote in an informative 2011 article, “Local and state law enforcement, fire services and emergency management personnel are often willing, able and eager to sit down with architects and building planning teams to review building plans and make suggestions to improve security, emergency sheltering, emergency communications and warning and other life saving features.”
Emergency responders can also give valuable feedback on school policies about lockdowns, bomb threats, missing students and more. You can also check out a school principal’s 5 simple steps for partnering with first responders or a university’s director of emergency management’s guide to developing emergency management partnerships.
