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Case Number 64
Scenes of life and death situations bombarded the airwaves over the following weeks and left indelible images in our mind’s eye. In the midst of confusion and turmoil of the hurricane’s aftermath, a reassuring constant was the emergency service personnel who endured their own personal hardships to reach out to those in need of assistance. Among the vast number of emergency personnel were members of the Louisiana State Police, some of whom had suffered the complete loss of their own homes.
The Louisiana State Police has a proud heritage dating back to the 1930’s. Throughout the agency’s existence, our responsibilities have changed to reflect societal trends and population migration. Likewise, the reputation of the Louisiana State Police, exemplified by the men and women who have represented the department and recognized by the citizenry of Louisiana, has evolved to that of the premiere law enforcement agency in the state. It was upon this well-established foundation that the Louisiana State Police ventured onto the accreditation scene in an effort to enhance the professional status of the department. The department was awarded its initial CALEA Law Enforcement Accreditation in November 2003. Despite the challenges caused by Hurricane Katrina, and shortly thereafter Hurricane Rita, the Louisiana State Police received its first reaccreditation in March 2007.
“Best practices,” as identified in Chapter 46 of the Law Enforcement Standards Manual, proved crucial to the department’s ability to respond to the unprecedented disaster that extended for weeks and continues to impact the lives of thousands of Louisiana’s residents. The Louisiana State Police’s ability to function through this disaster was directly related to CALEA Standards connected to managing natural disasters. Procedures reflecting the importance of an ordered stand-up and operations of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), ongoing training, and lessons learned from after-action reports were essential to the department’s rapid deployment of personnel and resources to the effected area.
The Louisiana State Police is fortunate to share a state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center with the state’s EOC. The Louisiana State Police EOC is equipped with communication, mapping, and intelligence gathering technology designed to increase situational awareness and facilitate information dissemination. The EOC was activated a few days prior to Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on the southeast coast of Louisiana and continued its operational function well into the month of October. Due to the scope and magnitude of the disaster, including Hurricane Rita’s strike on the southwest coast of the state a few weeks later, the EOC became the focal point for recovery efforts to one of the nation’s greatest natural disasters. The EOC was inundated with hundreds of emergency personnel from numerous local, state, and federal agencies involved in recovery efforts. Media personnel from around the world congregated outside the EOC eagerly seeking the latest breaking news to broadcast to their viewers. To the untrained eye this scene may have appeared chaotic, but driving this operation was an established set of policies based upon “best practices.”
Louisiana State Police Policy and Procedure establishes certain responsibilities to assigned teams for EOC operations. Additional team assignments have been created that allow for a quick deployment of personnel to affected areas to assist with either EOC or field operations. Prior to Hurricane Katrina’s strike on Louisiana, these teams had been activated and were in place to either monitor the storm’s progress or prepare to respond to calls for assistance.
The coordination required among the vast number of agencies involved in the recovery effort was essential to a successful operation. The Louisiana State Police Policy Manual has clearly designated levels of authority and defines the duties and responsibilities of the positions assigned to the crisis management staff. A crisis management software program utilized by Louisiana State Police personnel facilitates a seamless flow of information that significantly enhances the ability to monitor the activities of other agencies. One should not infer that there were no communication glitches between participating agencies or even among Louisiana State Police personnel. But considering the enormity of emergency personnel involved and the vastness of the affected areas, operational deficiencies were minimized.
Training is an important element critical to crisis management and so identified in Chapter 46 of the CALEA Law Enforcement Standards Manual. The Louisiana State Police has adopted procedures that require annual training exercises for agency personnel who are responsible for critical incidents. Louisiana State Police personnel participate in tabletop exercises that include multiple agency involvement. Training consisted of mobilization evaluations and familiarization of personnel with their duties and responsibilities. A review of various strategies and the coordination of efforts with participating agencies were vital to the resolution of each exercise. The ongoing crisis management training provided to agency personnel prior to these incidents was invaluable to our response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Only a disaster of this magnitude could have identified some of the deficiencies in our response, but CALEA’s requirement for an after-action report allowed for a critical review of the department’s various components.
An after-action suggestion from a previous hurricane was instrumental to the Hurricane Katrina evacuation of New Orleans. An earlier attempt to evacuate the city’s nearly one million residents resulted in traffic gridlock. A normal trip to Baton Rouge would generally take one hour. But with the city’s population evacuating in advance of a hurricane, reports of twelve-hour treks to Baton Rouge were not uncommon. The Louisiana State Police coordinated with the Department of Transportation and law enforcement agencies throughout the state and in Mississippi to develop strategies to increase the flow of traffic out of the New Orleans area. Subsequent after-action reports have led to the creation of a phased evacuation plan prior to initiating the Contra-Flow Plan, all dependent upon a region’s proximity to the hurricane‘s strike forecast. A Contra-flow Plan that designates one-way traffic out of New Orleans was implemented to effectively evacuate residents fleeing Katrina’s arrival. Contra-flow has proven quite effective and its success has led to the establishment of hurricane evacuation routes in other parts of the state.
Accreditation has worked for the Louisiana State Police and was extremely beneficial to our initial response and continual involvement in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. With the media scrutiny on law enforcement agencies working in New Orleans, the Louisiana State Police did not have a single incident to tarnish our reputation. I feel this achievement is a credit to the professional standards epitomized by the CALEA Accreditation Process and the dedication of the men and women who serve their fellow man as Louisiana State Troopers.
Colonel Henry L. Whitehorn, Superintendent Louisiana State Police
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