Ventura County Keeping Citizens Safe During Times of Crisis

Patrick Maynard of Ventura County in California had a problem.

As the head of the Office of Emergency Services at Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Maynard is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the county’s preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery programs. A primary component of these programs is the delivery of emergency notifications to the county’s nearly 850,000 residents.

Located an hour and 20 minutes northwest of Los Angeles, Ventura County is adjacent to the San Andreas Fault. In addition to earthquakes, the county must plan for potential natural disasters including flooding, landslides, liquefaction, tsunamis, and wildfires as well as man-made hazards and incidents.

In the event of an emergency, messages need to go out to impacted residents within the densely populated 2,208 square miles of the district. Considering the likelihood and potential extent of events in the region, Maynard needed to know that communications could be sent simultaneously to a large number of residents within a specified geography – as quickly and easily as possible.

But Maynard realized the county’s outdated, manual notification system was not up to the task. An upgrade was needed to ensure the safety and well-being of the citizens of Ventura County. Maynard needed to find a solution that would allow him to effectively and efficiently deliver messages to the county’s diverse population and would allow Ventura County to support the five fundamental elements of its crisis communications plan.

1. The process – Ventura County believes that it is critical to communicate during all stages of a crisis;
2. Accurate contact details – Ventura County has a very aggressive program to drive opt-in registrations to collect and maintain as many contact details for each individual as possible;
3. A multi-modal communications platform – Ventura County does not rely on just one communications device to get a critical message to someone in an emergency instead using multiple devices to ensure receipt;
4. Situational intelligence – Ventura County believes social media is both an outlet and a source for data in addition to being a valuable tool for collecting visual data from people on the scene;
5. Testing – Ventura County has a stringent testing philosophy, preparing message templates in advance and testing administrators regularly on how the system works, key processes to follow, and accuracy of contact data.

Maynard conducted extensive research on available solutions before opting for advanced multi-modal technology that gave Ventura County the ability to contact thousands of residents instantly via home telephone number, cellular telephone number, business telephone number, email address, text messaging, facsimile, and instant messaging. The solution also offered interactive communications capabilities, which allow county officials to reliably gain situational intelligence from residents. Not only did the county’s solution meet all of its needs, it offered a level of customization that gave it the power and flexibility Maynard sought.

The county created “VC Alert,” an online, opt-in portal where residents can add and update their contact information. Through this portal, citizens can specify which notifications they receive and how they should be contacted for both emergency and non-emergency alerts. Through a dedicated campaign to create visibility around the VC Alert portal, Ventura County ensures that the largest number of citizens is captured in the database. In addition, allowing citizens to sign up for and control the notification settings in this way ensures they pay attention to messages sent through the system because of personal relevance, and that citizens are alerted through the channel where they are most likely to respond.

Ventura County also wanted to ensure as many residents as possible could benefit from the program – and especially that residents without access to the Internet or a computer were able to sign up for VC Alerts. The county accomplished this by providing multiple methods to opt in. In addition to the online portal, residents can sign up for notifications via a telephone hotline or by filling out “request for information” cards at local government buildings. According to Maynard, this helped ensure a much larger percentage of the county’s population is represented in the system’s database.

Another consideration for increasing resident participation is accommodation for Ventura County’s ethnic diversity. As of 2011, 40 percent of Ventura County’s population is of Hispanic descent. It was clear to Maynard that any notification system would have to be dynamic enough to ensure critical messages could be sent to residents in languages other than English. In addition to implementing a solution that could reach residents quickly and easily, Maynard knew the messages sent out through the system needed to be clear and effective to have a positive impact. Due to the nature of the events Ventura County must prepare for, Maynard knew citizens would need as much warning as possible if a disaster or incident occurred. Because of his experience in emergency preparedness, Maynard knew messaging errors were more likely to occur in times of crisis. During a panic, misinformation could undermine the ability to reach the population and make the situation worse.

Maynard used this insight to develop message maps for potential crisis scenarios. Message maps are clear, concise messages created in advance of a disaster that simplify complex concepts and improve communication during chaos. Taking this concept a step further, Maynard followed the methodology set out by organizational communication expert Dr. Robert Chandler. This model of emergency communication is a more sophisticated version of traditional message mapping, providing specific parameters for messaging through the various stages of a crisis – before, during, and after. Message mapping allows Maynard to create messages for a wide range of events that could impact his citizens. These messages can then be easily customized and sent out quickly when an event occurs.

Ventura County’s next generation emergency and incident management solutions also offer interactive communication capabilities, allowing Maynard to communicate with message recipients, instead of just notifying them. Using two-way communications, Maynard can both inform constituents and empower them to be part of the incident response and resolution lifecycle, helping public safety officials make better decisions.

“We now have a way to interactively communicate with our citizens and allow them to quickly inform us regarding their specific need for assistance, so we can most efficiently manage our available resources during an incident,” says Maynard.

In addition to lifesaving emergency communications, the VC Alert system can also be used for everyday “community alerts” – non-emergency police and fire information, community event information, utility notifications, public meetings, and public works projects/road closures. The system is used by local municipalities, county agencies, law enforcement, and fire agencies.

Maynard cannot control when the earth will shake or when the forest will spark. What he can control is his voice and who hears it. By relying on sophisticated emergency notification/mass communications technology, Ventura County now has a clear and concise voice that can be heard by all.

Claudia Dent is vice president of product management for Everbridge (www.everbridge.com), a leading provider of interactive communication and mass notification solutions to organizations in all major industries and government sectors.