For several years, a growing effort to involve the private sector in intelligence sharing and resource coordination has been under way in Illinois. The initiative, known as the Private Sector Alliance project (PSAp), is helping both sectors prevent, prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks, floods and other disasters.
The seeds of the project began in 2004 with an initiative called the Infrastructure Security Awareness (ISA) program, which was aimed at facilitating intelligence sharing among public- and private-sector entities. Since then, Illinois’ efforts to collaborate with the private sector have evolved to include the Mutual Aid Response and Resource Network (MAR2N), geared toward coordinating resources necessary for disaster recovery, and the newly created Business Emergency Operations Center (BEOC), which will help to tie all of the components and players together into a cohesive common operating picture.
The ISA program, the PSAp’s oldest and most developed component, came about because Illinois officials realized that the private sector could benefit from law enforcement data coming into the state’s fusion center, the Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center (ST&IC), said Jonathon Monken, director of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. Public agencies also stood to gain from the knowledge held by private companies. Although the program was originally geared toward terrorism-related intelligence, it now encompasses information sharing for all hazards.
“Eighty-five to 90 percent of all critical infrastructure in the country is owned by the private sector — it’s not only government,” Monken said. “So being able to understand where the critical infrastructure is, assessing it for vulnerabilities and coming up with security plans to address those vulnerabilities is really what the ISA program is all about.”
Participants must apply to the program and be vetted before admission, but once they become part of it, they are privy to “for official use only” law enforcement data and other appropriate information. Participants stay in the loop via an online portal and monthly webinars, and twice annually the ISA program holds an event hosted by one of the private-sector partners on a relevant security topic.
Participants can also query the ST&IC as needed. Donna Kobzaruk, vice president and Midwest security manager for JPMorgan Chase, noted that at one point, she contacted the ST&IC regarding a suspicious vehicle.
“It was a matter of managing anxiety because this was a highly suspicious vehicle, and they came through for us in record time,” she said. “They were able to calm our fears.”
Kobzaruk, who also co-chairs the Illinois Terrorism Task Force’s (ITTF) Private Sector Committee, which advises the PSAp, said that it isn’t just a one-way street; the program’s hundreds of private-sector participants also provide relevant information to the ST&IC.
“There are only so many of them to go around,” she said. “They could use us to be their eyes and ears, so there’s this continuous flow. We get information from them on things that we should be aware of and look out for. We also supply information to them.”
The PSAp’s other component is the MAR2N, which aims to help officials and communities find necessary resources — such as equipment, supplies, manpower or expertise — during a disaster. In an emergency, the state can call on participating entities when supplies can’t be obtained through the state’s standard purchasing procedures or within government agencies.
The program, originally called the Mutual Aid Response Network, has evolved in the years since its inception — and it’s still evolving.
According to Don Kauerauf, acting chair of the Illinois Terrorism Task Force, who oversaw development of the ISA and mutual-aid programs, Illinois learned early on that trying to establish emergency supply agreements with private-sector companies prior to a disaster was something commercial enterprises tend to be uncomfortable with because they need to be free to manage their inventories according to market demands. So by necessity, the majority of these relationships have been informal.
“They didn’t want to be committed to saying, ‘I will have X many of a certain generator or how many of a certain people’ because you just don’t know at any one time,” Kauerauf said. “The companies were more than willing to verbally say, ‘We’re there to help, just give us a call.’ But when it came to trying to formalize an agreement in writing, many of them just went and hid.”
Many of the larger national companies were also being approached by so many different agencies that it was difficult to get their attention, he said.
“To be honest with you, it was a tough sell in the beginning because so many of these private-sector companies were being hit up from so many angles and different groups,” Kauerauf said, adding that the program stagnated for a time. “But it’s making great progress now, as I think there’s more of a national plan for public-private partnerships.”
He said companies are now returning to the table, and some have signed memorandums of understanding. But the agreements aren’t rigid arrangements. “If you look at this agreement, it’s really not a binding agreement,” he said. “The agreement that we’re getting organizations to look at and sign, it’s just getting to the point that we’re trying to write an agreement that in times of disaster, we can count on working together.”
Kauerauf said 50 to 75 private-sector organizations have informally agreed to be part of the program, and at the time of being interviewed, fewer than five had signed memorandums of understanding. He anticipated that more would sign on.
Don Knox, a security and crisis management analyst with Caterpillar who also is one of the ITTF Private Sector Committee’s co-chairs, said that the committee is still looking at the MAR2N program and how to further develop it, but partnerships could go beyond resources that companies supply to emergency managers. If a company can provide shelter, resources or information to its own employees during a disaster — especially if it’s a company whose employees make up a large portion of a given community — that can help the overall effort.
“If the private-sector company can provide resources to its own employees, it helps lessen the stress and the burden of what the public-sector response might be,” Knox said.
These types of partnerships are increasingly necessary in the current public-sector climate, Kauerauf said. “There are finite resources,” he said. “It’s becoming more apparent now as it is a smaller government capability that we draw upon in the private sector to support us.”
And these arrangements are as much in the interest of the private sector as the public sector. Some national companies have EOCs similar to those found in state and local governments.
“The public and the private sector both have a vested interest in wanting to mitigate the effects of disaster as soon as possible,” Kauerauf said. “Of course, we want to protect the safety and health on the public side. The private sector wants people to go back to work; they want them back as the normalcy of life.”
Now Illinois is expanding its collaborative efforts with a new BEOC. “For a long time we’ve operated somewhat in a vacuum,” Monken said. In the past, the ST&IC and State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC), which coordinate the ISA and MAR2N programs, worked together to respond to events in a co-located facility.
The state coordinated resources with companies via a private-sector liaison in the SEOC. With the new BEOC, which is located next to the SEOC, representatives from the various private-sector industries will be there with state emergency managers acting as liaisons for their industries. “We’re very excited to see the BEOC in operation and actually have them physically co-located with us — really fighting the disaster response alongside us,” Monken said.
With the BEOC, Illinois will be better able to coordinate resources and information with the private sector, so the private sector and impacted communities can get back on their feet more quickly.
“The sooner the public sector can pass on credible information to the private sector, it helps them with business recovery and business continuity-related things,” Knox said.
On the flip side, the sooner government becomes aware of impacted private-sector facilities, the sooner it can provide assistance to the affected communities and the businesses that serve them. Private companies, Monken noted, can provide many of the necessary resources directly to consumers — if they’re open.
“Typically that’s where people go first. If you need bottled water, then you’re going to go to Wal-Mart and buy a couple of cases,” Monken said. Working with liaisons in the BEOC, the state will be able to get a better picture of what’s going on in an affected area. “Wal-Mart knows better than anybody else what Wal-Mart stores are open and what Wal-Mart stores are closed. But the question is: Why are they closed? Is it because we don’t have power? Is it because we don’t have water? Is it because the employees can’t get to the store? We need to know those answers because that helps us prioritize the restoration of services in the affected area.”
Oftentimes local agencies also have agreements in place with private-sector partners, creating the potential for confusion or disjointed communication.
Monken said one thing that sets Illinois’ initiative apart is its efforts to coordinate with partnerships at the various government levels. “We’re trying to tie this into local relationships that already exist at the municipal and county level with the private sector, and then take that up to the regional level,” said Monken. “We’ve been sharing these best practices; we’ve been interacting. Whenever Chicago does a private-sector outreach program, Illinois is there to voice support for it and talk a little bit about our program as well.”
Knox said coordination among the various levels of government could help streamline communication for private-sector partners, but it’s also important for companies to establish internal procedures to interact with emergency managers before an incident occurs.
Throughout the PSAp’s evolution, the state has sought input from its private-sector partners. Monken said their input is essential to shaping the partnership and making it work.
“The government is really good at telling the private sector how we think they should interact with us,” he said,” but not actually asking the private sector how they think they should interact with us. So a fundamental part of the Alliance Project is to actually solicit that information.”
The ITTF’s Private Sector Committee historically has provided input and advice to shape the PSAp. Going forward, however, the Private Sector Committee will take on more of a leadership role in the partnership rather than simply advising.
“We’re asking the Private Sector Committee on the ITTF to really expand its role,” Monken said. “To take on that role of being the strategic planner for the overall partnership.”
One initiative the committee will work on is expanding participation from small businesses through outreach.
Monken said he expects that the number of overall participants will grow when people see the success of the current programs, especially with the launch of the BEOC. “It’s really incumbent upon us to have a successful state-level exercise,” he said. Monken also believes that it’s important to keep a regular schedule of exercises and events to keep participants engaged.
“If you kick all this stuff off and you do this great exercise and then nobody hears anything about it for the next two years, they’re either going to lose interest or realize that this is not something that the government or IEMA [Illinois Emergency Management Agency], in this case, is committed to.”
National Focus on Partnerships
Recognizing the importance of public-private partnerships in disaster response, FEMA introduced initiatives to facilitate private-sector collaboration with FEMA and at all government levels.To help inform these efforts, FEMA’s collected data about public-private partnerships from agencies nationwide. The agency has made the information it has collected about various models and best practices for partnerships available on its website. And while one size does not fit all, said Dan Stoneking, director of the Private Sector Division in FEMA’s Office of External Affairs, the most effective partnerships are those that recognize that both parties have needs and contributions to make.
“When you really engage the two in a two-way, public and private, ‘let’s get good things done and plan this together kind of mentality,’ it’s amazing what you can accomplish,” he said. “Not only do both sides win, but ultimately the survivors and the communities they serve win.”
FEMA also revised guidance language in fiscal 2011 for the Homeland Security Grant Program, Emergency Management Performance Grant and the Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program to include private-sector partnerships and make it easier for government agencies to use the grants to support such activities.
