What is Rapid Responder?

Rapid Responder® is an all-hazards situational awareness solution combining state-of-the-art technology, certified emergency preparedness training and tactical consulting. Rapid Responder has U.S. Department of Homeland Security SAFETY Act Certification, which provides liability protection to users in the case of terrorist events.

Rapid Responder provides a unique collaborative approach
that consists of four steps:

Rapid Responder provides immediate access to school safety plans specific to the type of incident. With careful pre-event collaborative planning, all information from various disaster, contingency and crisis plans can be stored in one central and secure location.

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Does Prepared Response have experience working with schools?

Rapid Responder has been implemented in thousands of campuses across 15 states, and is the most widely deployed school crisis management system. The Washington Association of Sheriff and Police Chiefs (WASPC) and the Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP) have deployed Rapid Responder in public K-12 schools statewide. In addition to providing the technology (fully populated database), Prepared Response is responsible for bringing together all the necessary partners and building team consensus for each school’s emergency plans, and directing the process of developing community-wide crisis readiness.

Prepared Response’s services include an orientation meeting, collaborative pre-incident planning meetings with school personnel and their responder partners, the digital mapping process, data entry, and training sessions.

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Has Rapid Responder been used to resolve a real school emergency event?

Rapid Responder has been used to successfully mitigate a school shooting, as well as many other emergency incidents. In September 2003, a student brought a handgun to Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, WA, threatened students and teachers and fired a shot during lunch hour. Lewis and Clark High School officials were involved in the Spokane School District Collaborative Pre-Incident Planning meetings with Prepared Response, and the school was digitally mapped before the incident occurred. Because of this planning, more than 2,000 students were evacuated in less than 12 minutes. The entire incident was resolved in less than an hour, with the only injury being to the gunman himself. The incident was resolved quickly because the school safety team and local first responders had instant access to critical facility information through Rapid Responder. School officials were immediately able to relay building information to police dispatchers while officers were still en-route to the school.

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Has Rapid Responder been used to resolve a non-violent incident?

Rapid Responder has been used to successfully mitigate the flooding of a school gymnasium floor. Several members of the Rogers High School Wrestling Team in Puyallup, WA were doing chin ups on the sprinkler raiser pipe system in a room adjacent to the newly refurbished gymnasium. The sprinkler raiser pipe system, which is tied into the campus wide fire protection system, has separate shut off valves from the primary water supply source. The gymnasium floor
had just been completely refurbished the previous summer.

The combined weight of the students snapped the sprinkler raiser pipe and water instantly started pouring out. The campus maintenance staff was not on the campus at the time, so the principal attempted to stop the water from flooding the gym floor by turning off the main water source to the building. Because the sprinkler raiser pipe system is a separate system, this did not stop the water from continuing to flood the room adjacent to the gym.

Immediately afterwards, the principal accessed the sprinklerraiser pipe shut off instructions from Rapid Responder.By quickly accessing the proper instructions in Rapid Responder, the principal saved the district an estimated $100,000 in gymnasium floor repair bills.

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Does Prepared Response offer assistance with improving school emergency plans?

Prepared Response has developed standardized templates for the emergency plans such as earquake, flooding, gas leak, explosion, power outage and many many more. Please contact us for a full list. These templates are customized to evaluate and improve emergency plans at each school.

Along with the responders and school stakeholders, Prepared Response uses these templates to review and design customized emergency plans. These templates are used as needed to review, evaluate and create emergency plans for all schools in a district.

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What public partners/first responders are using Rapid Responder?

Prepared Response has successfully coordinated more than 800 tactical planning meetings with a wide variety of first responder public safety agencies using Rapid Responder. Including the following agengcies:

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Has Rapid Responder been tested and evaluated?

Rapid Responder was developed and tested over five years and is one of the only products on the market developed by safety professionals. The Rapid Responder solution and services have undergone a thorough and rigorous evaluation under the Washington State Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC), and chosen by WASPC security professionals to be the best solution to be deployed as their statewide critical infrastructure information.

Prepared Response underwent a rigorous application process for more than a year that included a lengthy technical and economic evaluation before being awarded Department of Homeland Security (DHS) SAFETY Act Certification in 2006. DHS has the option of granting: 1) SAFETY Act Designation and Certification, 2) SAFETY Act Designation only; 3) Request Additional Information Only; or 4) Reject the Application. Rapid Responder was granted the highest level: SAFETY Act Designation and Certification.

Prepared Response is one of only 90 companies awarded the SAFETY Act Certification in the United States and is the only company with an interactive emergency response crisis management solution to be awarded the SAFETY Act Certification. As the highest authority on safety for the country, a DHS endorsement on the technology we deploy in our schools demonstrates that we are deploying a tested and safe solution for protecting students and school infrastructure. Under the SAFETY Act, the Rapid Responder crisis management system and professional implementation services are certified as a Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technology by the Department of Homeland Security. This entitles our customers to powerful liability protection, including the “government contractor defense,” in the event of a lawsuit resulting from a terrorist act – either foreign or domestic ,including a Columbine-type incident.

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Can we track and log incidents, drills and training?

Users can document and schedule drills, training and actual incidents. The events can be indexed by time and date. The nature of the event can be described (e.g. fire drill), allowing administrators to quickly determine if the facility is in compliance with periodic drill requirements associated with the fire code. Documents can be appended to the events to describe characteristics such as attendance, scenario, training objectives, etc. Supporting and responding agencies can also be annotated by name.

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Does Rapid Responder track user credential and qualification status (e.g. CPR, NIMS, etc.)?

A training record will exist for each employee. On acquiring a new certification, the employee’s record can be updated to reflect the nature of the certification and the expiration date. A certificate can be appended to the certification for additional detail and clarity.

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Will we still be able to access our data if we lose Internet service during an emergency?

Rapid Responder offers the capability to download critical information from the emergency response database to an external storage device (i.e. USB, thumb drive, or other portable device) or the hard drive of a computer or laptop. This provides the ability for full access to Rapid Responder on computers that are not connected to the Internet.

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Can I access real-time alerting information?

The system allows you to access official weather alerts for your region posted by the U.S. Weather service through the Common Alerting Protocol. Alerts include short term forecasts, anticipated atmospheric conditions and notification of catastrophic events that are either pending or are in process. Events include flash flooding, tornados, tsunamis, typhoons and earthquakes.

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Can I track threat level-specific tactical responses consistent with the US DHS definitions

Users can view Pre-Incident plans based on the current Department of Homeland Security threat-level.

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Can I access plume modeling to help evacuate areas in case of a large chemical spill?

Users can view isolation and evacuation areas overlaid on a GIS map. The action areas are based on guidance from the North American Emergency Response Guide (US Department
of Transportation). With this functionality, decision makers can isolate areas using streets and geographic features as references.

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Is Rapid Responder NIMS compliant?

The various emergency and incident plans contained in the Rapid Responder system utilize the standard set of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) icons that support NIMS in identify staging areas such as command posts, transportation staging areas and observation
points. The organizational command charts and contact information housed in the system support the command structure and chain of command established by NIMS to properly implement an Incident Command System (ICS). The Prepared Response facilitators will assist the District to identify the appropriate places to incorporate the NIMS terminology and protocol in the districts’ emergency plans. In addition, our experienced instructors, data collection
and data entry personnel are NIMS 100, 200, 700 and 800 certified.

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Does Rapid Responder meet all four phases of best-practice emergency management: Prevention-Mitigation; Preparedness; Response; and Recovery?

Prepared Response uses an all-hazards approach with districts and their planning partners to improve and strengthen emergency management plans, at the district and school building level, addressing the recognized best-practice four phases of emergency management: 1) Prevention-Mitigation; 2) Preparedness; 3) Response; and 4) Recovery.

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Does Rapid Responder meet best and effective recommended practices for school emergency planning?

In addition to being proven as a best practice by State of Washington statewide Crisis Management System and other school districts nationally, Prepared Response’s suite of professional services and approach to implementing the Rapid Responder solution meets US Department of Education’s best and effective recommended practice for school emergency planning:

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Does Prepared Response offer emergency preparedness training?

In addition to end user training, our experienced trainers and professional services staff offer a full suite of emergency preparedness training courses that can be customized to meet the specific needs of any organization. Prepared Response and the Community Safety Institute have joined
forces to create Hazard Tactics™. Our courses have been sanctioned by and serve as the foundation for multiple national safety initiatives including: the Department of Homeland Security, Executive Office of the United States, Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing
Services, Department of Defense and Office of Domestic Preparedness.

Prepared Response’s training experts hold professional certifications in the fields of law enforcement, criminal justice, mental health and education. Our consultants average 20 years of experience in their professional fields. Many have authored articles in professional journals, magazines and newspapers, and some have authored, coauthored or edited books and journals as well. Several of our consultants have garnered local, state, national and international awards, recognition or acclaim for their work.

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What is the price and time line for Rapid Responder implementation and training?

For pricing and time line information, contact:
sales@preparedresponse.com
253-272-1483

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What is Prepared Response's company background, history and staff qualifications?

Prepared Response, Inc. is a privately-held corporation located in Seattle, Washington. Incorporated in 2000, a group of public safety professionals (law enforcement, fire chiefs, facility security teams and first responders) responded to the demand for a technology solution designed to help mitigate events such as the shooting at Columbine High School. Our core business areas include:

Our management team and board of directors offer a wide range of experience from the law enforcement, finance, military, corporate, government, security and public service entities.

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