You are an off-dutyChicago Police Department S.W.A.T. Team Commander. You are atNational Car Rental, located on Bessie Coleman Drive, returning arental car as you plan to shuttle to nearby O’Hare InternationalAirport. The line is moving incredibly slow and there are fivepeople in front of you. You look at your watch to check the time-and realize that you are almost late based upon your timeestimates. It is 3:30 p.m. and your flight leaves at 4:15.
BOOM! The floor shakesand people scream. You immediately go outside and look towards thesource of the blast…and it appears to have come from O’HareInternational Airport. You stand there, for a few seconds, withyour eyes and ears sharply tuned-in to the direction of the blast.You see nothing.
You open your tacticalbag, which you luckily brought with you as a carry-on item, andpull out your binoculars. You survey the visible portions of theairport. Nothing.
You grab your cellphone and call the S.W.A.T. team Lieutenant, Gaven, to see if therehave been any reports on the incident.
“Gaven…you there? It’sme.”
“Hey Boss- look man, Ihope you had a good flight but we just got a call- it’s GO TIME!”he replied.
“Whoa- hang on! I amstill here- I am at National Car Rental on Bessie Coleman Drive-and I just heard a loud boom from O’Hare. I am Northeast of O’Hare,and…”
“Boss!” Gaveninterrupted. “Get over to O’Hare now. We got a call that a bombexploded in the FlyHigh airport terminal and the communicationswent dead…and we received phone calls from people in the airportsaying that this is a mass-casualty event and hundreds of peopleneeding rescue. Meet me at the insertion rally point (IRP), that weuse for training there, and you can suite and boot.”
“Roger that!” Youreply. I never get a day off…
You grab the rentalcar and arrive at the IRP quickly. You can now see smoke coming outof a jet bridge linked to the FlyHigh terminal. Your cell phonevibrates and you turn around to see your team driving towardsyou.
“Hey Boss! Let’s moveit!” Gaven said as you approached the S.W.A.T. truck.
“Give me a sit-rep asI gear up” you reply, already knowing that Gaven has all of theknown information as of right now. He was good like that.
“Okay Boss- here’swhat we got. At 1531 (3:31 p.m. for you civilian types), as FlyHighwas exiting a flight that just arrived, a suicide bomber set off anitroglycerine bomb…”
You cut him off. “Hangon- liquid explosives? What-”
“No offense Boss, butstay quiet. I will get to that. Anyway, federal authorities havebeen notified and they are sending in the FBI’s Hostage Negotiationand Hostage Rescue Team (HRT). We don’t know if there are moreterrorists or if they have any hostages, yet you know the routine.We were tapped as the first responders…so guess what? You are theIncident Commander.”
“…so we have nothing?REALLY? None of the phone calls that came in told us anything morethan mass casualties and hundreds injured?” You reply, fairlyflabbergasted.
“Nope. The dispatcherssaid that the calls were frantic and all they heard was a lot ofscreaming and noise in the background, and no dispatcher heargunfire.”
“Alright, Gaven. Let’srock ‘n roll! Saddle up the Team and follow me.”
Your Team easilyenters the FlyHigh terminal. You took a back entrance (SecretEntrance 41, or SE41) that only S.W.A.T. teams, and other federalfirst-response teams, know exist. Meanwhile, while monitoring theradio chatter in the process of approaching the scene, you hearthat people are frantically running out of the airport, cars haveclogged up all entrances and exists to the airport, and lawenforcement is slowly clearing an entrance point and triaging theknown injuries. This out-of-control scene has only allowed for fourpolice units, one firetruck, and two EMS trucks to arrive onlocation. The remainder of the first responders are stuck intraffic.
You advise dispatchthat you don’t know the disposition of the rest of the airportbecause you are taking SE41 to make initial contact. You advise toprioritize law enforcement securing the remainder of theairport.
Your Team enters theFlyHigh terminal and quickly determines that there are no moreexisting threats. However, the scene is how you would imagine it tobe; the death, carnage, and screams for help is something that nohorror movie could replicate.
You provide a sit-repto dispatch and then hear another loud BOOM from another part ofthe airport. You make sure everyone on your Team is ‘green’ and getback on the radio to notify dispatch. You didn’t have a chance tosay anything- your Team is ordered to the front entrance where thefirst responders are.
You arrive to the newscene and call in a quick sit-rep.
“This is Boss. TheTeam has arrived to the second event. There is a secondmass-casualty event.”
Your Team surveys thearea briefly and gives you a report to call in to the highercommand.
“This is Boss. Advisethat a second nitroglycerine bomb attack occurred at the secondincident location. No surviving first responders. Estimated morethan 100 injured. HazMat team and staging area needed.”
Within three hours, aperimeter has been set up around O’Hare International Airport, yourcommand post is in place, HazMat has set up a staging area and iscleaning the area, and all of the casualties and injured have beenremoved. Hundreds of people have arrived to check on their lovedones and this is creating quite a disturbance to your operationscommand.
You are then briefedby the HazMat operations commander that the area contaminated bynitroglycerine is larger than thought. HazMat states that they needyou push back the scene entrance by 300 feet.
The incident is finally resolved twelve hours later. Boy, areyou tired! You begin demobilizing resources and the assessmentprocedures. You then work with other departments to review yourresponse. You check your timeline to make sure that you have all ofthe necessary information because you know that there will becountless inquiries…and an internal investigation by the ChicagoPolice Department.
Instructions:
3. DESIGN a plan for each Outcome (for each Stage:Prevention Preparedness Stage, the Response Stage, and the Recovery& Mitigation Stage. This includes identification of the Crisis,Scene Management, and Executive Management Stages (under theResponse Stage)), that Boss failed to meet, that analyzes what Bosscould have done to meet each Outcome that he failed to reach ineach stage.
Please include 2 ormore APA cited credible citations. Thank you
