Group helps cities cope with mass shootings
Resiliency center shares blueprint to manage chaos
In the 13 years between the Columbine High School massacre and the Aurora theater attack, mass shootings became so common in the U.S. that they were no longer unthinkable.
In 2016, there were 354 shootings in which four or more people were murdered, plus 49 school shootings and stabbings, said John Gay, chairman of the Aurora Key Community Response Team, who led the effort to create the National Resiliency Center.
When a crisis happens, from a mass shooting to natural disaster, most cities are unprepared and overwhelmed, Gay said. For example, when 12 people were killed and more than 70 injured at an Aurora movie theater in 2012, rescue efforts were hampered by traffic jams created as emergency responders rushed to the scene while moviegoers fled the theater multiplex.
Two days after the shooting, the idea for creating the National Resiliency Center was planted when Gay met with then-President Barack Obama and Gov. John Hickenlooper at the University of Colorado Hospital, where many of the injured were treated.
“(Obama and Hickenlooper) said we need to create something people can go to for information,” Gay said.
So Gay worked with several emergency response experts to create the National Resiliency Center, a website that has compiled a blueprint of best practices to help manage the chaos.
The site provides action plans for incident commanders and other local, state and federal officials with detailed lists of recommendations for handling the initial incident and its aftermath. Those recommendations range from setting up incident command centers to handling unrelenting media inquiries and managing government grants and charitable donations.
“The goal is to reduce the chaos, and the NRC protocols address issues rarely found in community, state and federal disaster plans,” the website says. “Following the NRC advice can help reduce crisis chaos, increase first responder efficiency and effectiveness and aid/assist the emotional recovery of victims, victim’s families, first responders and the community.”
Gay, a former aide to numerous presidents, including Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, and a member of the Overseas Security Advisory Council, said it’s unfortunate a resource like the NRC is crucial.
“These atrocities are not going to go away. This is something that I think America needs,” Gay said. “It’s the good that came from the bad.”
People from around the U.S. and the world have clicked on the website, often in the aftermath of mass shootings, said Terrance Quinlan, a member of the NRC’s board of directors.
“(People) from hot spots for terrorism have been hitting our website including from the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada and Austria,” said Quinlan, an expert in the financial effects of mass shootings.
In fall 2014, NRC officials met numerous times with security officers from the Pepsi Center and Town Center at Aurora about installing Israeli-made “smart (light) poles,” equipped with infrared and radiationdetecting cameras.
“On a professional level it’s a great resource to have,” Tim Christiansan, security supervisor at the Pepsi Center, said of the resiliency center.
The NRC was created independently of government control and supervision so it’s designed to be an instant resource if needed, said Joe Kahoe, a retired Air Force colonel and cofounder of the NRC.
“We didn’t want to be encumbered by government bureaucracy,” he said.
After the theater shooting, federal guidelines kept Aurora disaster responders waiting for two weeks to get permission to see the database of 19,000 afteraction plans that the Federal
Emergency Management Agency has compiled from communities around the country.
“Who goes through 19,000 plans of response? Nobody has the time to do that,” Kahoe said.
NRC volunteers have sifted through many of FEMA’s records and identified the policies and tactics deemed the most beneficial, he said. “We’ve made it a collection of pearls that are worth diving for,” Kahoe said.
Gay mostly has used his own money to create the NRC, but more financial support is needed to reach its goals and potential, he said.
NRC needs a permanent researcher, an executive director to field questions from around the country and seek federal and private grants to keep it running full time. At least $350,000 a year is needed to run the program properly, Kahoe said.
“We’ve got to create a funding stream,” Kahoe said. “There is so much tragedy out there.”
Although the NRC is set up to help with the initial disaster response, its recommendations also are designed to help communities in the aftermath.
Often, government disaster grants and charitable donations dry up before officials realize the full scope of community victimization.
That’s why the NRC says it’s critical for communities to oversee charitable giving — to prevent fraud and ensure donations are available to help over the long term.
When a mass shooting happens, those affected include not only the victims and their families, but also first responders and community residents, Gay said.
All of them can experience debilitating psychological trauma, he said. Many victims with only tangential ties can’t afford to pay $100 per hour or more for therapy, Gay said. Their needs are unmet and they are often forgotten, he said.
The NRC recommends designating a committee to handle charitable funds and suggests limiting them to just two — one for victims and their families and another for victims and victim services. And it recommends not distributing all the donations immediately because victims and their families often need support for years.