Emergency Notification Systems and Privacy Policies

On April 16, 2007, a Virginia Tech student shot and killed 32 faculty and students and wounded 25 others before killing himself in an academic building on campus. The university is still dealing with the aftermath of the incident and expects it to be an ongoing concern for the foreseeable future. This session will encapsulate summaries of the IT-related lessons learned including the impact on the university's communication system; the notification issue; radio communications interoperability; the sheer logistics of accommodating the communications infrastructure and control center needs for a variety of emergency responders and law enforcement; identity management and privacy; and data preservation and computer forensics. Overriding all of these issues is the question of federal, state, and local policies and ways in which policy issues were encountered, confronted, and managed.

In light of the recent tragedy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed an executive order April 30, 2007, creating a Gubernatorial Task Force to research University Campus Safety in Florida. The Task Force, chaired by Department of Children and Families Secretary Bob Butterworth, will evaluate the security risks at the college and university campuses throughout the State. Other members include representatives of law enforcement, education, disaster planning, the Attorney General's office and students. The Task Force will meet in several locations across the State before submitting their findings and recommendations to Governor Crist on May 24, 2007