Emergency Notification Systems and Crisis Communication – Blog

September is National Preparedness Month (NPM) and a reminder that we need to be prepared for future critical events. “Disasters don’t wait, make your plan today” is a fitting theme for 2020. Right now, there is a trifecta of crises hitting the United States, including wildfires, hurricanes, and the ongoing pandemic with flu season on the brink. Organizations and schools are questioning whether they are prepared with an effective emergency plan and the best communication tools to handle these situations.

While you may not see as many active shooter incidents in the news lately, they have certainly not gone away. COVID-19 has superseded active shooter events in the media. The numbers are currently down in schools to some extent due to distance learning in the fall 2020 semester, but in the long term there has been an increasing trend in active killer situations. We still need to be mindful of these critical incidents as students, faculty, and staff return to their college campus.

We recently teamed up with the safety experts at Margolis Healy to present “Clery Act Compliance: Risk and the Current Environment.” The webinar examined the Clery Act, reviewed its history, structure, and best practices for compliance, as well as its enforcement in a world of virtual learning.

In an emergency situation, it is difficult to predict the outcome. With that said, the advanced technology and reporting capabilities of an Emergency Notification System can allow safety officers and emergency managers to measure the effectiveness of emergency alerts and notifications, gain visibility to subscriber status, and ultimately reduce risk.  An emergency notification system with easily accessible administrative reports enables you to better prepare for a crisis.

In the COVID-19 world, there is a lot of misinformation and confusion about how to safely reopen organizations, campuses, and schools. The reality is there is no magic bullet for contact tracing programs. Contact tracing requires self reporting and HIPAA compliance for data privacy. For those reasons, our focus remains on providing safety officers, campus police, and school administrators with comprehensive, credible resources and suggestions for best practices to help inform decision-making in preventing the spread of infectious diseases, saving lives, and protecting people.

Omnilert recently partnered with Campus Safety Magazine on the webinar, “Severe Weather Preparedness: Educating Students, Staff and Faculty on Proper Responses,” featuring meteorologist Dr. Kevin Kloesel from the University of Oklahoma. The webinar raised questions about weather safety practices on university campuses and highlighted how administrators can fulfill their duty of care to ensure the safety of students and visitors. Preparedness for severe weather requires foresight, planning, education, and demands improvement on campuses.