The purpose of this order is to establish a uniform guideline for Critical Facilities checks in regards to Homeland Security issues.
It should be the responsibility of the Watch Commander to ensure compliance with this order.
The key consideration in checking the station’s area for problems is to initially assess a limited number of predesignated locations know as critical facilities. A critical facility is one of the following.
PRIMARY CRITICAL FACILITIES:
High Occupancy Structures:
Any facility which, depending upon the time of day, may contain a large number of people, e.g., shopping malls, high rise buildings, universities/ colleges, sporting arenas, multi-story public schools and hospitals.
Disaster Routes:
Are highways which have been identified by the Department of Public Works, Caltrans, and the Metropolitan Transportation Engineering Board. These routes have been designated to serve as primary routes for ingress of resources and the egress of evacuees. The assessment of these routes is designed to reveal those pathways which are either unaffected by the event and can therefore be utilized immediately or, if all have been impacted and areas are isolated, then those routes which can be cleared with the MININUM of effort. (Also refer to Section 2-1/070.15 of this EOP>
SECONDARY CRITICAL FACILITY:
Governmental Building/ Facilities:
City Halls, Department of Public Social Services facilities, Courts, etc.
Any other location of concern to your station or the community which no other discipline checks, and/or a critical building/structure in which management have no method in place for providing information to Station or County EOC.
NOTE: Public Schools elementary through high school have been instructed to report to the School District Headquarters. The Headquarters will report to the local Sheriff Station or City EOC in who=s jurisdiction the District Headquarters is located (this does not supersede the law requiring districts to report to the County Office of Education). If a District Headquarters is in the unincorporated area, they will report to the local Sheriff Station. (If in a contact or contract city, they will report to City EOC and the city EOC shall forward the information to the appropriate Sheriff Station). Sheriff Stations are ultimately responsible for collecting this information and for making proper evaluation of this District’s needs.
Sheriff stations shall be prepared to respond to the need of the District, which may include making requests through the DOC/CEOC.
Critical Facilities shall be listed by reporting district (RD) and a copy of the list shall be maintained in each radio car. Once the order to check all Critical Facilities has been given, they shall be checked by the area car (s) assigned to the specific reporting district(s).
In the case of more than one field unit assigned to a reporting district, the field units shall communicate and mutually coordinate an appropriate division of the reporting district. The deputy shall log the Critical Facility checked and a description of the facility/locations damage.
Critical facility’s information shall be reported to the DOC. At the conclusion of the Critical Facilities check, the field units shall conduct a General Area Survey, as described in Section 2-1/070.20 of the Department’s EOP.
When the Department is placed on a heightened state of awareness and stations are required to check Critical Facilities on each shift, the following procedures will be followed to ensure accountability.
The Watch commander shall be responsible for overseeing the operation and to ensure that at least 7 critical facilities are checked per shift. These shall be prioritized based on their importance to homeland security and relative likelihood of attack. An entry shall be made in the watch commander’s log noting that the checks were made, the numerical designator of the facility as noted on the Critical Facilities List, and the time of completion. All incidents at these facilities (i.e., suspicious activity, damage, threats received, etc.) shall also be documented in the Watch Commander’s Log. In addition, the watch commander shall make any required city notifications.
The watch deputy shall ensure that all critical facilities are checked prior to the end of the shift. The watch deputy shall monitor the critical facility checks, ensuring that the checks are made in a timely manner. The watch deputy shall maintain a check off list, keeping it updated with the status of each facility as it is checked and submit the completed list to the watch commander.
Any incidents or suspicious activity shall be reported to the Watch commander. The watch deputy shall also keep all facilities updated in the Computer Aided Dispatch System (CAD). The watch deputy will be able to review all critical facility checks by conducting an incident search. The search is compiled by placing the clearance code “850” in the clearance code field.
The dispatcher shall assign one field deputy from each city to make patrol checks of their cities respective critical facilities. The dispatcher shall ensure that the field deputies are not assigned any calls for service, with the exception of Emergent calls, unit the checks are completed.
The assigned field deputy shall make patrol checks of all critical facilities in their respective city without delay. All attempts should be made to complete the primary checks prior to the secondary checks. Field deputies shall create an observation, “obs,” on the Mobile Digital Terminal for each facility checked. The address of the location, the facility name and the code “924” shall be entered into the “obs” format. All facility checks shall be cleared using an “850” statistical clearance code. The clearance narrative shall include the facility number (i.e., primary #3, secondary #5) and the status code (i.e., ND– no damage). Any suspicious activity or package, threats received, damage noted, etc. shall be reported to the watch deputy immediately. Non-emergent calls, details and observations should not be routinely made prior to the completion of the checks. Emergent calls may be handled by assigned deputies if the need arises.
The Critical Facilities Lis will be stored in the trunk of every patrol vehicle inside a metal container. Additionally, the Critical Facilities List will be available on the Computer Aided Dispatch system via the MDT. To obtain the critical facilities in a given reporting district, type “CRIT” and RD (i.e. CRIT 2913) and the RD (i.e. CRIT 2913) and push the “send” key. All critical facilities for that RD will be displayed.