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Community Safety Team
The Community Safety Team offers guidance to schools, houses of worship and businesses in the development of Emergency Operation Plans, We recognize the need for community readiness in the event of an emergency.
Recent violence in our communities has caused our citizens to question what can be done to protect their schools, places of worship, and businesses. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office offers guidance in making our community prepared to respond to environmental, natural, and manmade threats.
Request guidance from the Community Safety Team through the online Request Form.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office recognizes the need for community readiness in the event of an emergency. Recent violence at houses of worship has led religious leaders to question what can be done to protect their congregations.
Steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood and the impact of natural disasters and violence in houses of worship.
One of the first steps in making your house of worship safer is developing an Emergency Operation Plan and implementing a training program.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office formed a Community Safety Team to address and guide houses of worship, schools, and businesses in becoming more prepared to respond to environmental, natural, and man-made threats.
The Sheriff’s Office will assist in developing an Emergency Operations Plan without sacrificing the welcoming atmosphere of your house of worship.
Here is a FEMA-developed Emergency Operation Plan designed for houses of worship.
Resources available to you:
- Community Emergency Response Team Training
- You Are The Help Until Help Arrives Training
- FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute Independent Study Course List
- IS-360: Preparing for Mass Casualty Incidents: A Guide for Schools, Higher Education, and Houses of Worship
- IS-505 Religious and Cultural Literacy and Competency in Disaster
- IS-909 - Community Preparedness: Implementing Simple Activities for Everyone
- IS-907: Active Shooter: What You Can Do
- IS-906: Workplace Security Awareness Course
- IS-914: Surveillance Awareness: What You Can Do
- IS-366: Planning for the Needs of Children in Disasters
- IS.650.a: Building Partnerships with Tribal Governments
- IS-368: Including People With Disabilities & Others With Access & Functional Needs in Disaster Operations
- FEMA Voluntary Agency Training Resource Page
Request guidance from the Community Safety Team through the online Request Form.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office Community Safety Team tests and evaluates individual schools within Lake County on their readiness and individual safety plans. We train and prepare school employees and students on how to more proactively handle the threat of an aggressive intruder or active shooter ensuring Lake County schools are up to date on industry standards and complying with current laws.
A.L.I.C.E. was developed as one way to implement “run, hide, fight.” It is a protocol that can be easily taught to teachers and students. A.L.I.C.E. is an acronym involving a series of training concepts to empower victims against an active threat to improve their chances of survival.
There has recently been a shift in government and private organizations to utilize proactive measures instead of passive traditional lockdown procedures to deal with active threats within a building. This shift came as a result of extensive research by the Federal Government and New York Police Department into active shooter incidents. The current recommendation from Homeland Security during an active shooter situation is no longer to lockdown and wait for the police, it is “run, hide, fight.” The data shows us that proactive measures are superior to passive measures and ALICE takes the three natural human responses of fight, flight, freeze and turns each into a proactive response.
Resources available to schools:
- Illinois State Board of Education provides a School Emergency and Crisis Response Plan Guide.
- Illinois State Board of Education School Safety Drill Act Presentation
- Illinois State Board of Education School Drill Documentation
- A.L.I.C.E. Training K-12 Program
Request guidance from the Community Safety Team through the online Request Form.
It pays to be prepared. Floods crippled areas of Lake County in 2017, hurricane Irma ravaged areas of Florida and California experienced fires and mudslides destroying hundreds of properties. Having an emergency crisis response plan in place can save lives, limit damage and aid in a rapid recovery.
Resources available to businesses:
- FEMA Business Emergency Response Plan
- OSHA’s Emergency Preparedness and Response, ‘Evacuation & Shelter-in-Place.’
- OSHA’s Workplace Violence Training & Other Resources
Request guidance from the Community Safety Team through the online Request Form.