The Homeland Security Unit is a part of the Special Operations Division. The staff in this unit coordinates grant-authorized training and exercises for the all the first responder agencies in the county of Santa Clara. Training and exercises are overseen by the California State Office of Emergency Services (OES) and governed by United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 “National Preparedness” (HSPD-8)
On December 17, 2003, the President issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive 8 “National Preparedness” (HSPD-8). The purpose of HSPD-8 is to “establish policies to strengthen the preparedness of the United States to prevent and respond to threatened or actual domestic terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies by requiring a national domestic all-hazards preparedness goal, establishing mechanisms for improved delivery of Federal preparedness assistance to State and local governments, and outlining actions to strengthen preparedness capabilities of Federal, State, and local entities.”
The National Preparedness Goal
The Department of Homeland Security has recently released an Interim National Preparedness Goal that will guide the Nation in determining how best to devote limited resources to most effectively and efficiently strengthen preparedness for terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. The Goal establishes measurable priorities, targets, and a common approach to developing needed preparedness capabilities.
Capabilities-Based Planning
The Goal utilizes a Capabilities-Based Planning approach: planning, under uncertainty, to provide capabilities suitable for a wide range of threats and hazards, within an economic framework that necessitates prioritization and choice. Capabilities-Based Planning addresses uncertainty by analyzing a wide range of possible scenarios to identify required capabilities.
RECENT EXERCISE PHOTOS: Mass Casualty Exercise 2006
A Combined law enforcement agency hasty-entry team looks for possible suspects and evacuates ambulatory patients from the scene of a mock explosion.
Fire Fighters from many
Santa Clara County agencies arrive and start the triage and evacuation of the injured.
The Emergency Medical Services Agency (EMSA) directs the
transportation of victims.
COUNTYWIDE MULTI-HAZARD MULTI-DISCIPLINE TASK FORCE (CMTF)
The CMTF program is a county wide multi-disciplinary response to a natural disaster or a catastrophic event (either intentional or accidental). The primary role of the CMTF Law Enforcement program is to type the resources and personnel available to immediately respond to an event and be able to sustain a presence on scene for an extended period of time. This program is in conjunction with the preexisting Mutual Aid agreements and provides an up to date resource/personnel reference guide for an immediate response to the critical incident.
The reason for this program is to provide the requesting Agency with a means to know what resources can respond immediately to a critical incident within their jurisdiction or to send only the needed resources to the requesting agency. Fire Services have been typing their resources for years and can provide an immediate response with known equipment and capabilities. The CMTF Law Enforcement program is to facilitate this same response capability and to integrate Law Enforcement into the Incident Command System. The law enforcement / CMTF position will have an emergency response capability and may be requested to respond to emergency incidents to serve as a technical resource to the incident commander.
The goal of the project is to type all available resources into a comprehensive on-line database, which provides up to date information for response planning in the event of a major critical incident. The on-line information will be available to all Law Enforcement Agencies within the county.
Resource typing will closely follow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency guidelines to reflect the resources within Santa Clara County.