The Instant Notification Imperative

Addressing key challenges in emergency messaging

The Importance of “Instant” Notification

In August 2008, President Bush signed into law the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), which contains an amendment to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, known as the Clery Act. This amendment emphasizes the need for instant mass notification in the event of an emergency on college campuses. HEOA provides compliance guidelines for incident response times, reporting and preparedness testing, as well as establishing a mechanism for levying fines should an institution be found in violation of the requirements. Because effective communication and mitigation efforts within the first minutes of a crisis can drastically affect outcomes, failure to comply with regulations set forth in HEOA can carry a weight of up to $27,500 per instance.

The first 60 minutes after an incident or crisis has been reported is known to emergency management personnel as the "Golden Hour." This nomenclature signifies the period wherein loss of life or other asset casualties can be compounded as a result of no action or inappropriate decision-making in response to the situation at hand. During the "Golden Hour," events have the potential to perpetuate into broader, sometimes catastrophic consequences. This is true in acts of violence, transportation incidents, chemical and oil spills as well as natural disasters, making instant, effective communications paramount in saving lives and protecting critical assets.

A close examination of the incident timelines representing a range from natural disasters to acts of school violence illustrate a mass casualty effect often climaxing within 60 minutes.

Consider this:

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