EMIP3 – Emergency Management: Integrating People, Plans and Protocols

About the Program

Category: Risk and Emergency Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

In a county of 4.1 million people, 24 municipalities, four tribal entities, more than 60 hospitals and hundreds of schools, managing emergency contacts for planning, mitigation response, recovery and alert, and warning is a challenge. With agencies’ contacts constantly changing, the Maricopa County Department of Emergency Management (MCDEM) found itself managing contacts through four disparate, non-integrated systems that offered little efficiency and dwindling synchronicity. The Flood Control District of Maricopa County (FCDMC) which oversees twenty three (23) dams, fifteen (15) levees and their associated Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) and ten (10) flood response plans (FRPs) has a vested interest in MCDEM’s alert and warning protocols, which align with each plan. The project, EMIP3, spearheaded by the FCDMC (for its dams and plans) and the Office of Enterprise Technology (OET) automated the process of contact update within the emergency protocols and MCDEM’s auto-dialer, allowing updates to be made once, and integrated into all systems simultaneously. This improved accuracy, synchronized the appropriate contact with the relevant protocol and/or plan for FCDMC’s structures, as well as all of MCDEM’s hazard response protocols. The project benefits public safety through rapid alert and warning, all while eliminating errors and redundant effort.