FOP Journal

Mike Cahn, a retired New Orleans Police lieutenant and member of Crescent City FOP Lodge #2, will never forget Hurricane Katrina. His house was destroyed by raging floodwaters. He was separated from his seven-and-a-half-months-pregnant wife and nearly three-year-old son. He worked two weeks straight in horrific conditions, waging rescues in putrid water and consoling fellow officers who didn’t know if their families were alive or dead.

Making matters worse, he says, was his department’s lack of a cohesive emergency preparedness plan. “There was absolutely no plan in place,” he recalls. “I really felt like I was on my own.”

In the years since the 2005 superstorm, the New Orleans Police Department has vastly improved its emergency response, as have other departments that have endured natural and human-made disasters. Unfortunately, many are still leaving their officers, and the officers’ families, in a precarious position.

Retired Sergeant James Preston, president of the Florida State FOP Lodge and a member of the Tampa Police Department for 30 years, helped create a Disaster Response Team concept for the state’s FOP membership and is chairman of the FOP’s National Disaster Relief Program through the National FOP. He says most agencies nationwide would only average a “C” grade in their disaster preparedness and should review their response procedures on a regular basis.

That’s why it’s imperative that officers take steps on their own to prepare for an emergency, both on shift and off duty. “You may go through your entire career and never be involved in a natural disaster or large-scale emergency, or you may go through five or six,” says Preston. “The more information you have for preparedness, the better armed you are.”

The FOP is helping agencies, officers and families prepare for disasters with the Law Enforcement Families Readiness Initiative (LEFRI). Established in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, LEFRI grew out of a Department of Justice and Bureau of Justice Assistance research grant and provides a model policy that agencies from rural, suburban and urban areas can use to guide officer and family preparedness. The program helps officers and their families better understand the strains they may be under during a disaster and what steps they can take to manage the situation.

Here are some of LEFRI’s suggestions:

➜   Contact list: Officers should provide their department with a detailed contact list of family members and how they can be reached, including email and text-messaging options. Agencies should regularly test their emergency communication systems to communicate with on- and off-duty officers and, if need be, their families.

➜   Money matters: If you don’t already have direct deposit, enroll in it. If you don’t have a joint account, consider opening one. If you are called away for a period of time, you can rest assured that your family will still have income for bills, groceries, hotel stays and basic living needs.

➜   Housing: Agencies should consider providing a central housing location for officers’ families, but if your department doesn’t have predetermined emergency living arrangements for your family, make your own plan. In an evacuation, where will your family go? Ensure that you have enough food, water and basic living supplies stocked up in the event of a shelter-in-place order.

➜   Belongings: Store important documents like taxes and medical records in a weather/fireproof safe or lockbox inside your home. Don’t rely on a safe-deposit box at a bank, because what if you can’t reach it? Also, have an understanding of what items your family may need in the event of an evacuation and have “go” bags packed for each family member. This is especially crucial if you live in a flood- or tornado-prone part of the country.

It’s important to remember that no matter where you live, an emergency can strike at any time. To help establish LEFRI, Troy Mineard, a sergeant with the Akron (Ohio) Police Department and a member of FOP Akron Lodge #7, interviewed hundreds of officers who endured both natural and human-made disasters. “It was interesting talking with officers from different parts of the country and finding out what they had to say,” he recalls. “In California, they deal with earthquakes. In New Orleans, there was Katrina. In New York City, there was 9/11.”

Mineard says taking care of an officer’s family is just as important as taking care of the officer on duty. “The more the family can do, the less the officer will have to worry about and can concentrate on his job,” he explains. “I don’t mind being out in the field for two weeks and not taking a shower as long as I know my family is OK.”

That’s certainly something that would’ve eased Cahn’s mind in the weeks that followed Katrina.

Editor’s note: Click here for more about Cahn’s experience during Hurricane Katrina and information about how departments, agencies and individual officers can make a plan to prepare for the worst.

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Read the full Spring 2014 FOP Journal issue.