Handbook of exercises for transportation sector personnel

Exercises

In multi-jurisdictional and multi-profession exercises, evaluators should be selected from each profession and jurisdiction, and only evaluate the performance of their agency’s personnel. This lessens the pre-exercise study of plans for the evaluators, and also ensures that the evaluator understands the role of the agency he is evaluating.

2. Include observers from other agencies

Agencies may benefit from having observers from other agencies present at their exercises. The observers can provide insights into areas where the agency’s plans may need to be coordinated with near-by jurisdictions, and may offer suggestions for improvement based on the way other agencies in the region handle similar events.

3. Video the exercise

Make a video of the exercise. This can be useful for training future employees, for updating someone who missed the exercise, for briefing senior staff on the value and benefits of exercises, and for improving future exercise delivery. If you cannot afford a professional videographer, see if the participating fire or police department has a videographer who could be part of the exercise team. Alternatively, contact the local community college’s media communications department to see if second year students could use making a video of your exercise a class project, for extra credit, or as an internship. Student labor rates through the college will usually be

$15 or less per hour (in 2013), and if it is work done for class credit it might be at no cost to your agency. If your agency has a relationship with a RACES (amateur radio) organization, their members may be volunteer videographers for your event. They may also have access to amateur television technology that would allow people in the command post to see the field events unfold. This can be recorded for future use, as well. If these ideas fail, ask any agency member with a video phone or cam- era to capture the photographic evidence of the exercise, even if the sound is not usable. A voice-over narration can be added later through a vendor, or internally, if the capacity is developed.

4. Use a sandbox

Sometimes it is difficult to envision actions during discussion-based exercises. In a facilitated exercise the full scale aspect (getting people to leave the discussion and move vehicles as ideas are discussed) may interfere with the discussion focus, and in a full-scale event some aspects may have to be simulated due to cost and space. Therefore a “sandbox” approach may enhance the exercise and participant learning. This approach is used by the military to track large-scale field operations that cannot readily be observed from one vantage point, as well as for complex maneuver planning, like the management of aircraft on an aircraft carrier.

In advance of the event make a floor map to scale of the exercise site using a large plotter, or visqueen (heavy plastic sheeting used in roofing) and colored tape. Cut out sandpaper makes good simulated roadbed, and bridges, while overcrossings and waterways can be created using paint or construction paper. Purchase Matchbox vehicles, and HO-scale model building kits and traffic signals to create the exercise environment. Exercise participants can move the vehicles as they develop a response plan, enabling them to see where they might create congestion, which routes are blocked, and where staging areas might be optimally located.

5. Provide rehab after exercises

At the end of the exercise, ideally before the Hot Wash, every participant should go through a “rehab” station that is similar to the staff rehabilitation system used by the fire service. It should be a relatively quiet and shady place, with water and simple snacks available. This is a good place to have a department psychologist discuss incident stress and the importance of peer debriefing groups. If your agency does not have a post-event incident debriefing plan, discuss how to develop one with your local fire department. Exercise participants may develop stress reactions to the simulated events, especially if they have been to a real event that is similar to your simulated one, where someone was hurt or killed, or there was significant environmental damage. Known as the “echo effect,” this second experiencing of a tragic event can be stronger than the reaction to the initial event.