INTRADEPARTMENTAL CORRESPONDENCE

June 21, 201016.2

TO: The Honorable Board of Police Commissioners

FROM: Chief of Police

SUBJECT: CITY COUNCIL MOTION-EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS IN THE CITYOF LOS ANGELES (CITY COUNCIL MOTION 10-0578)

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS

1. That the Board of Police Commissioners (Board) REVIEW AND APPROVE this report.

2. That the Board TRANSMIT this report to the City Council's Arts, Parks, Health andAging Committee and the Public Safety Committee.

DISCUSSION

On March 1, 2010, the Anderson Cooper 360 show that aired on the Cable News Networkdiscussed the recent major worldwide earthquakes and identified the five cities that expertsbelieve are at the greatest risk for a major earthquake. The City of Los Angeles ranked first onthis list since seismologists predict that a major earthquake is due to hit the area, a cycle thatoccurs every 150 years and the last major earthquake was in 1857. In this show, the City wasdescribed as "one of the best-prepared cities in the world.. .and the emergency responders werevery well trained." In response to this information, the City Council issued a Motion to theEmergency Management Department (EMD), including the Los Angeles Police Department(LAPD) and the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD), to report on the status of earthquakepreparedness in the City of Los Angeles.

The LAPD works closely with its partners, EMD and LAFD, in emergency management tomitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster occurring within the City, includingearthquakes. Emergency Operations Division (EOD) is tasked specifically with ensuring theDepartment is prepared in the event of a catastrophic earthquake in the City and the attachedreport summarizes the LAPD's earthquake preparedness activities that are codified into a seriesof written plans. Those plans are the LAPD's Emergency Plan revised January 10, 2010, theEmergency Operations Guide, the Area Standing Plans and the Continuity of Operations Plancurrently in the developmental phase.

In addition, a major component of emergency preparedness that supplements these written plansis a comprehensive training and exercise program. The standard for incident management is theimplementation of the Incident Command System (ICS), found under the National Incident

The Honorable Board of Police CommissionersPage 216.2

Management System. The ICS is based upon the State of California's Standardized EmergencyManagement System. Department personnel must complete a series of ICS training coursesbased upon their rank and responsibilities, and emergency preparedness is taught in allsupervisory schools, including the Civilian Supervisory School. The Department participates indrills and exercises designed to test our emergency response capabilities, and willcontinue to do so to ensure a state of readiness related to any significant emergency facing theCity of Los Angeles.

If you have any questions, please contact Captain Thomas J. McDonald, Commanding Officer,E0D, at (213) 486-0680.

Respectfully,

CHARLIE BECKChief of Police

Attachments

EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS IN THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES

On March 1, 2010, the Anderson Cooper 360 show that aired on Cable News Network discussedthe recent major worldwide earthquakes and identified the five cities that experts believe are atthe greatest risk for a major earthquake. The City of Los Angeles ranked first on this list sinceseismologists predict that a major earthquake is due to hit the area, a cycle that occurs every 150years and the last major earthquake was in 1857. In this show, the City was described as "one ofthe best-prepared cities in the world.., and the emergency responders are very well trained." Inresponse to this information, the City Council issued a Motion to the Emergency ManagementDepartment (EMD), including the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Los AngelesFire Department (LAFD), to report on the status of earthquake preparedness in the City ofLos Angeles.

The LAPD works closely with its partners, EMD and LAFD, in emergency management tomitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from a disaster occurring within the City, includingearthquakes. Emergency Operations Division (EOD) is tasked specifically with ensuring theDepartment is prepared in the event of a catastrophic earthquake in the City and the attachedreport summarizes the LAPD's earthquake preparedness activities that are codified into a seriesof written plans. Those plans are the LAPD's Emergency Plan, revised January 10, 2010, theEmergency Operations Guide (EOG), the Area Standing Plans and the Continuity of OperationsPlan (COOP) currently in the developmental phase. The Emergency Preparedness Unit, EOD, isresponsible for reviewing, maintaining and revising the plans on an annual basis. In addition,participation in emergency preparedness training and exercises is critical to the success of anyemergency plan and the Training and Exercise Unit, EOD, is tasked with coordinating thoseactivities.

Los Angeles Police Department Emergency Plan

All City departments are required to develop department emergency plans in accordance withMayoral Directive EP-1. 1 The LAPD Emergency Plan is intended to identify the Department'scritical functions, provide contingencies for performing those functions in an emergency, providethe means for supporting Citywide response operations, and provide strategies for preparingpersonnel to deal with an emergency. The LAPD's Emergency Plan does not replace theDepartment's standard operating procedures, tactical and continuity plans, which provide moredetailed information than the LAPD Emergency Plan. The Emergency Plan is updated annuallyand provided to EMD no later than January 31 of each year.

Mayoral Directive EP-1 requires City employees to report to work in an emergency, empowers the Mayor to assignemployees to emergency duties; stipulates that all requests for Mutual Aid must be approved by the Mayor; andrequires each department to prepare and annually update an emergency plan.

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In the event of a major earthquake, the LAPD's Emergency Plan states:

Earthquake

• The Department has identified earthquakes as a significant workplace threat. In anattempt to mitigate the effects of an earthquake on the Department, including itspersonnel, facilities, and services provided, the Department has developed acomprehensive mitigation strategy. The Department provides detailed training topersonnel on what to do during and immediately following an earthquake. TheDepartment has engaged in ongoing training/exercises to test the readiness of itspersonnel to respond to such an event (Drop, Cover, and Hold Drill, which is held inconjunction with the City's annual Emergency Preparedness Fair held in the month ofSeptember).

• The Department has determined that the scope of police responsibilities will varydepending on the amount of damage caused. Although not all of the below-listedresponsibilities will always apply, the most urgent responsibilities after an earthquakeare:

• Accounting for Area/division personnel;• Damage assessment of each geographic Area/division;• Re-establishing communications, if disrupted;• Provide the Department Operations Center (DOC) with a damage assessment

of Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources, as well as a general damageassessment of the area;

• Implementing the Area Earthquake Response Plan;• Opening major ingress/egress routes for emergency vehicles;• Facilitating evacuation including special needs community members; and,• Air Support Division (ASD) is tasked with completing an aerial damage

assessment of the City, and this information will be reported to the DOC.

• Each geographic Area within the Department has prepared a list of CriticalInfrastructure locations from within their Area. Immediately following anearthquake, personnel from within these areas will be responsible for conducting awindshield survey/damage assessment of these locations, provide the DOC with thedamage assessment of critical infrastructure and key resources, as well as a generaldamage assessment of the area within a timely manner.2

Emergency Operations Guide

While the LAPD's Emergency Plan is the overarching plan for emergency mitigation,preparation, response and recovery within the City, the EOG primarily focuses on specific policeoperations in response to a variety of emergencies that occur in the City. The EOG providesstep-by-step instructions for each emergency, including an earthquake, to ensure field personnelare familiar with their duties and responsibilities pertaining to the specific emergency they face.The EOG is accessible via the Department's Local Area Network (LAN) and was updated inNovember 2009. The EOG consists of Policies and Procedures, Supervisor's Field Operations

2 Los Angeles Police Department Emergency Plan, revised January 12, 2010, Page 19.

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Guide (FOG), First Responder's FOG, Guidelines for Crowd Management and Crowd Control,Field Jail Guide, and Emergency Preparedness Bulletins. The Earthquake Section of theSupervisor's FOG addresses the specific responsibilities that a watch commander, the fieldofficer, the DOC and/or the bureau Command Post must complete shortly after a majorearthquake, including damage assessments and establishing communications. The EarthquakeSection of the EOG has been converted into an e-Learning presentation and will be reviewed byDepartment employees in the next two months.

In addition, several Emergency Preparedness Bulletins address earthquake-specific preparednesstopics for both the home and the workplace, including dealing with utilities, personal disasterkits, responding to work after a disaster occurs, and dealing with animals in a disaster.

Area Standing Plans

Each Area/division in the LAPD is required to maintain Standing Plans that are readilyaccessible to the Watch Commander and employees. This is an Area/division-specific plan thatincludes a list of the critical sites within the Area/division such as schools and hospitals, withcontact information for each location. The Standing Plans include an evacuation plan for theArea/division, the current mobilization roster (commonly referred to as the A/B Roster), andSection 8 of the Standing Plans is the Area Earthquake Response Plan. The Area EarthquakeResponse Plan contains the same information found in the EOG Earthquake Section, along withcritical information as to whether hazardous materials are stored at the Area/division.Area/division Standing Plans are updated annually and surveys are conducted by EOD personnelto test Watch Commanders' familiarity with their respective plans.

Continuity of Operations Plan

The LAPD is currently creating COOP plans. The COOP Plans are intended to address long-term issues related to facilities becoming uninhabitable that may occur in a major earthquake andestablishing an alternate functional facility in which to resume the essential services to thecommunity and to Department operations. The COOP Plans will not only include identificationof a specific alternate facility where the Area/division will resume their operations in the eventtheir primary facility becomes uninhabitable, but also designate COOP relocation teams, includesecurity plans for the damaged facility and the alternate facility, provide a command successionfor each Area/division, and have an appendix on vital records with an off-site backup location forsuch records. Once the COOP Plans are complete, a training and exercise program will bedeveloped to familiarize personnel with the COOP Plan and requirements.

In addition to these four critical written plans, the Department has taken additional measures toprepare for a major earthquake in the City. These measures include dispersal of Command Postequipment within the four geographic bureaus and creation of the "Station in a Box" program sothat critical police functions can be resumed in the short term when an Area/division facilitybecomes uninhabitable.

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Emergency Air Transportation Plan

Special Operations Bureau, in conjunction with the LAFD and EMD is in nearing completion ofa Citywide Emergency Air Transportation Plan. This plan will provide essential Departmentcommand staff and key City personnel with information on how to obtain emergency airtransportation via helicopter following a catastrophic event, such as an earthquake or terroristattack. In the event of a catastrophic event, essential Department command staff and key Citypersonnel may find it very difficult to respond to their primary duty assignment locations due todamaged streets and freeways, as well as transportation infrastructure. As a result, EOD, inconjunction with ASD, has identified several strategic locations in the Los Angeles region thatcan safely accommodate the landing and taking-off of a helicopter. Essential Departmentcommand staff and key City personnel will be required to report to one of these designatedlocations and will be transported to their primary duty assignment location.

Training and Exercises

A major component of emergency preparedness that supplements these written plans is acomprehensive training and exercise program. The standard for incident management isimplementation of the Incident Command System (ICS) found under the National IncidentManagement System (NIMS). The ICS is based upon the State of California's StandardizedEmergency Management System. Department personnel must complete a series of ICS trainingcourses based upon their rank and responsibilities, and emergency preparedness is taught in allsupervisory schools, including the Civilian Supervisory School. The Department participates indrills and exercises designed to test our emergency response capabilities and will continue to doso to ensure a state of readiness related to any significant emergency facing the City ofLos Angeles.

In order to ensure compliance with the NIMS Training Plan, all sworn Department personnel arerequired to complete ICS 100, Introduction to the Incident Command System for LawEnforcement and ICS 700 National Incident Management System, An Introduction, which areboth online courses provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In addition toICS 100 and ICS 700, all sworn Department supervisors must complete the ICS 200 IncidentCommand System for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents and ICS 800 NationalResponse Framework, An Introduction, online courses. The Department established anadditional training goal that all Sergeants II and above assigned to Office of Operations entitiesare to complete the classroom courses of ICS 300 Intermediate Incident Command System andICS 400 Advanced Incident Command System training by the end of Calendar Year 2010.

The Department is currently participating in a unified training program with EMD and LAFD topresent the ICS 300 and ICS 400 courses to police, fire and civilian personnel from within theCity family as well as to our regional partners in order to provide an opportunity for realistictraining within a unified setting. The Unified Command—Phase 3: Response to Recovery Coursealso provided training for this same student pool and taught students to complete a unifiedIncident Action Plan in a Unified Command setting. This course is expected to resume in theFall of 2010.

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Since functioning within a Unified Command setting is paramount to the success of managing asignificant incident such as a major earthquake within the City, additional training is available toenhance the training program. Department Command Staff are encouraged to attend the MGT314 Enhanced Incident/Unified Command Training Course that provides unified commandtraining in an intense simulation environment.

The Department's Supervisor's School, Watch Commander's School and Civilian SupervisorSchool all contain emergency preparedness courses to ensure the frontline supervisors areprepared to respond to any emergency, including an earthquake. Event/Incident Action Planpractical training is also provided to any rank of employee who is tasked with writing theseplans.

The LAPD's readiness to respond to disasters has been exercised in a variety of settings, fromfull-scale exercises to tabletop exercises and drills. In the Golden Guardian 2008 full-scaleexercise, wherein the scenario involved a 7.2 earthquake occurring on the San Andreas Fault, thefunctioning of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC), the LAPD's DOC, an Area Commandand a Unified Command were exercised and evaluated. The Department recently participated inthe EMD Recall Drill for EOC Responders and participants in numerous tabletop exercisesrelated to emergency preparedness and ICS. The Department will participate in theJuly 28, 2010, functional exercise entitled Operation-Golden Phoenix, an improvised nucleardevice detonation scenario that will test the DOC and EOC Responders in managing acatastrophic event in the City. Although this is not an earthquake scenario, it will address themass care and sheltering issues and significant evacuation issues that will be an issue for anymajor earthquake in the City.

The LAPD routinely applies this training to the real world when handling the significantpreplanned events that occur annually in this City. The LAPD unifies with the LAFD and otherallied agencies as appropriate to manage effectively these events, and EMD staffs the LiaisonOfficer position to enhance the Unified Command's ability to coordinate with our City, Countyor Regional partners.

Alliance Task Force

The LAPD has three representatives assigned to a multi-agency task force (Alliance) whosemission is to plan for a regional mass care, shelter and evacuation disaster. The task force isexamining best practices to better prepare the Operational Area for a significant disaster. Oncethe task force completes its analyses, a training program will be developed based upon thefindings of the task force.

Building Emergency Education Program

As directed by the Mayor and City Council, the Department of General Services, with assistancefrom the Fire Department, is responsible for coordinating the City's Building EmergencyEducation Program (BEEP). This program provides for facility emergency planning for all Citywork sites which have ten or more employees. The program includes development of writtensite specific plans, evacuation procedures and designation of City staff to serve as facilityBuilding Emergency Coordinators (BECs), Floor Wardens and support staff. The LAPD is aparticipant in the BEEP program and the facilities with a BEC and Floor Emergency

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Coordinators (FECs) participate in a Citywide coordinated drill twice a year, consisting of anearthquake drill and a fire/evacuation drill. Annual training is required for all BECs, FECs, andFloor Wardens, regardless of whether or not they have previously attended the training.3

Community Outreach

The LAPD participates in the annual Emergency Preparedness Fairs organized by EMD. TheEOD personnel organize an information booth and distribute relevant emergency preparednesshandouts to the community. Previously, the fairs were held throughout the City on multipledates in 2007, 2008 and 2009. When requested, EOD personnel have given presentations tocitizen groups and neighborhood associations and coordinated tabletop exercises for privatebusinesses and other City departments. Other civilian preparedness programs are available to thepublic but are not coordinated by the LAPD. One example of these programs is the CommunityEmergency Response Teams (CERT).

Also, the LAFD trains volunteers to be part of CERT, and the training is provided free of charge.The course is generally provided in seven sessions. Each session is 2.5 hours in duration. Thetraining covers earthquake awareness, disaster fire suppression, team organization andmanagement, disaster medical operations, and light search and rescue operations. Uponcompletion of the course, volunteers are issued "Disaster Service Worker" identification cards sothey can aid local emergency services during major disasters.

Conclusion

The LAPD has taken extensive steps to mitigate, prepare for, respond to and recover from amajor earthquake in Los Angeles. By continuing to work with our partners in emergencymanagement through joint training programs, internal training programs and by annuallyreviewing and revising emergency plans, the LAPD has set the framework in place to face such acatastrophic occurrence while continuing to provide essential services to our communities.

3 The retirement of the BEEP Coordinator at the Department of General Services has caused the program to be

suspended until a new BEEP Coordinator is selected.

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P-S, PARKS, HEALTH &AGING

/0 - a5-g) PUBLIC SAFETYMOTION

In the past few months, several earthquakes have occurred throughout the world. The devastationcaused by the earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, Taiwan, and Mexico were well documented by media and aretestaments to the need to prepare for this type of natural disaster. Recently, several earthquakes have alsooccurred in the Southern California area and near California's border, including the quake that was centeredin Mexicali.

During the Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees show that aired on CNN on March 1, 2010, AndersonCooper discussed the major earthquakes that recently occurred and also which five cities experts believeare at the greatest risk for a major earthquake. The cities on the list included Jakarta, Seattle, Tehran, andTokyo. Los Angeles was number one on the danger list because the last "big one" was in 1857 andseismologists predict that it comes every 150 years, so it is due. On the show, the associate director forseismology at Columbia University, Dr. Arthur Lerner-Lam, was asked how prepared Los Angeles was forthe next "big one." Dr. Lerner-Lam stated that "Los Angeles is one of the best-prepared cities in theworld.. .There are very, very strict building codes. And the emergency responders are very well-trained."

California is no stranger to earthquakes. California has learned lessons from past experiences, suchas the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. Building codes have been updated and are enforced to ensure that LosAngeles and cities throughout California will be able to standup to future earthquakes. Californians are alsoencouraged to prepare an emergency survival kit that is filled with necessities, such as first aid supplies,water, and flashlight, should an earthquake disaster occur.

Earthquakes cannot be predicted and are not likely to cease in the future, but Los Angelenos can dotheir part to be prepared for them. The City of Los Angeles has an Emergency Management Department thatcoordinates the interdepartmental preparedness, planning, training and recovery activities of the EmergencyOperations Organization, its divisions, and all City departments. Additionally, the Emergency ManagementDepartment serves as a liaison with other municipalities, state and federal agencies, and the private sector.The Emergency Management Department also performs related public education and communitypreparedness activities. In light of the recent earthquakes that have shaken the Southern California area, theEmergency Management Department should report to Council on how prepared the City is for the nextearthquake.

I THEREFORE MOVE, that the City Council instruct the Emergency Management Department, andany other City departments, including the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles PoliceDepartment, to report to the Arts, Parks, Health, and Aging Committee and Public Safety Committee onearthquake preparedness in the City of Los Angeles.

PRESENTED BY:TOM LABONGECouncilmember, 4th District

SECONDED BY:SMITH

ncilm ember, 12° District

CB