Vital Systems Security

Today, Harvey Molotch and Noah McLain gave a talk entitled “Learning From the Subway: How to Do Security For Example” at Columbia Sociology. Based on 100+ hours of ethnographic research conducted by McLain in the New York subway system, Molotch and McLain made an argument argument for a notion of security that extends beyond counter-terrorism measures. They emphasized the inefficiency of the security measures imposed from top such as FEMA and DHS and argued for security measures that will improve regular use conditions and that can also be used under emergencies, such as a better ventilation system. Furthermore, their focus was also on how in everyday practices the subway personnel bent the formal rules to keep the subway running safe and efficiently. With a Latourian emphasis on the agency of objects, they demonstrated how the personnel found new ways of dealing with the pressing practical everyday problems of operating a subway system. Read the rest of this entry »

In October Dale posted on the release of the National Response Framework (NRF), which at the time was roundly criticized both because it did not give adequate power to FEMA administrators (a major issue during Katrina and Rita response) and because it was weak on specifics and failed to take into account criticism from the emergency management community. At a press conference yesterday a revised NRF was released. And the response has been dramatically more positive thus far. The International Association of Emergency Managers, which derided the original NRF as a “public relations document” that lacked any usable specifics praised the new NRF. Russ Decker, the First Vice President of IAEM said in a press release that:

We are extremely pleased with the final National Response Framework (NRF) product. It is apparent that our counterparts in Washington were listening and genuinely interested in addressing the issues raised by local emergency managers. As result of the improved process, we believe the NRF is a document that local emergency managers will find very useful. This is the greatest compliment a local official can give a Federal document. We get many documents from Washington that go on a shelf, but this one will actually be used. We appreciated being included in the process and look forward to a continued dialogue on this and other issues.

More on this, no doubt, in days to come. But at least in this area it looks like DHS has finally gotten a bit more serious about distributed preparedness. The full range of documents DHS released yesterday can be found here.