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Emergency Management, Emergency Services, & Disaster Spox

Final day of training at DCHSEMA #NatlPrep

Posted on September 20, 2016 by rusnivek

Second and last day of our training at DC’s Homeland Security Emergency Management Agency.

Again, glad to have so many partners in public safety participating esp from the intelligence community.

Also excited to finally make it to NOAA/NWS Headquarters! Special thanks to my old friend and PIO extraordinaire Cindy.

Every single Emergency Management class is all about building relationships. No matter NIMS/ICS, EOC, Hazardous Weather, Intelligence, or Social Media – build your network of trusted partners in public safety.

Super glad to see so much participation during September: National Preparedness Month aka my favorite month! #NatlPrep

@rusnivek

An easy Family Emergency Communications plan here – for free #NatlPrep #PrepareAthon

Posted on September 4, 2016 by rusnivek

Second week of the 2016 National Preparedness Month!

This week, we focus in on your family emergency communications plan.

For parents, click here.

For kids, click here.

For your wallet/purse, click here.

Want to include more information? Consider adding

Twitter handle
Instagram handle
Work address
Identifying a central meeting/rendezvous location

These are the kinds of details will help enhance your current plans.

Now you are probably wondering why I said to write them down (hard copy). If you lose power to your cell phone, or worse yet, you lose your cell phone during evacuation – you won’t have your programmed address book to reference with all the important contact information and cell phone numbers.

Create your family communications plan now.

Busy September 2016 = National Preparedness Month #NatlPrep #PrepareAthon

Posted on September 1, 2016 by rusnivek

August was solid, but September is going to be huge because it’s NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH!!!!!

First and second week, it’ll all be planning for a gigantic upcoming all-hazards PIO/PAO Conference.

Third week will be spent teaching ICS-300 for Ohio EMA to my friends in the SW part of Ohio. And then on Friday, attending the Ohio PIO Symposium.

Fourth week, I’ll be teaching at Washington DC’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management EOC. Upon return, then presenting at the Wayne County (Ohio) Fire Chief’s Conference on PIO/Social Media.

Fifth week, I’ll be presenting on PIO and cyber at the infrastructure at the statewide infrastructure protection conference in Region-7. Who knows, if I can do it, maybe some tactical training in Alliance too. #pewpew

And ALL month long, I’ll be participating in National Preparedness month activities that you can share with your constituents. If we can better prepare our peeps, we can increase our national level of community resilience.

Thanks to the www.ready.gov program, it is easier than ever to get involved and prepared.

Hope to see you engaging during this important month.

“Don’t Wait. Communicate. Make Your Emergency Plan Today.”

@rusnivek

Filming for the new CNBC show Cleveland Hustles

Posted on August 20, 2016 by rusnivek

Cleveland hustles indeed.

Lots of cameras and peeps here. Good thing I wore my Aloha Shirt #AlohaFriday

LeBron showcasing Cleveland for the new CNBC show called Cleveland Hustles.

@rusnivek

PIO Tip: Frame your shot and reduce your onscene variables

Posted on August 16, 2016 by rusnivek

I was finishing up my AARs and found a picture from the last night of the Republican National Convention (RNC).

Quick tip for you PIOs doing field reporting: Frame your shot.

Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams doing an interview with Time Magazine. Obvious chalked roadway with profane statement behind him. Videographer is recording at an upward angle to frame his subject.

During the RNC, we found that it was critical to frame the shot. Onscene shots were particularly tough because so many activist groups had signs, chalked, or painted words that are inappropriate for pictures or even worse yet, uncontrolled live broadcast hits (Periscope or FacebookLive or YouTubeLive).

Additionally, live outdoor broadcasts from the scene are challenging because it is difficult to control the natural and man-made variables.

So as PIOs we need to reduce any signs, ropes, wires, etc….that could affect your framed shot.

Trust me, reduce the amount of variables to a bare minimum.

Focus your energy in delivering your message. #PIO

@rusnivek

PIO-ing Cleveland’s Public Square during #PrideInTheCLE #ClevelandPride

Posted on August 14, 2016 by rusnivek

Yesterday, I supported Cleveland Police on the #PrideInTheCLE #ClevelandPride event in Public Square.

Much different from the Republican National Convention.

Lots of families out and about (and enjoying) the new cool fountain in downtown Cleveland.

Everyone was having a great time.

Lots of speculation and talk about public safety not being around to support the LGBT community – all totally false. Public Safety will be there to support any community.

Trust me, lots of public safety was on hand to support our entire community.

Cleveland Police Bomb Squad and K9 teams…

Cleveland EMS…

..even the Cleveland Police bike patrol was out supporting the day’s events.

Lots of areas to cover.

Partnerships with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department and Cleveland Police Department are key in providing safety for everyone who attended the event.

It was a relatively hot day so I am glad that many of the participants dressed appropriately for the event.

Some not so much.

Fun entertainment and friendly people staying cool out in Public Square.

While waiting around, we had some time for a quick PIO selfie…

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Also had time for a few interviews with local media.

Also happy to run into a long time good friend Mark Zinni who is the anchor for the Channel 3 Eyewitness News in Hartford, Connecticut. Great to see him again.

Thanks for the picture Zinni!

Can’t wait to see him again in Cleveland.

While out there, we even made a few new peeps into Junior Police Officers.

Thanks Ken!

We were fortunate enough to do a few live interviews on Periscope from Public Square.

We highlighted the event and gave a status report of the operations using Periscope.

Ever wonder what it’s like to hang with onscene PIOs? Here’s a behind the scenes shot of us doing some live interviews on Periscope.

Thanks for the action shot Zinni!

Trust me, it’s harder than it looks.

Overall, it was great to see so many people out on a Saturday afternoon in Cleveland.

As always, I had a great time working the PIO magic with Jen!

We make a pretty good team huh?

Hope everyone stayed dry while the rain hit.

Great safe event everyone!

Have a great weekend!

@rusnivek

DHS requesting social media info revision on ESTA and I-94W forms

Posted on August 11, 2016 by rusnivek

Interesting to see that DHS is requesting a question be added to the ESTA and into the I-94W English (11-11) FINAL (reference only) form.

Please enter information associated with your online presence—Provider/Platform—Social media identifier. It will be an optional data field to request social media identifiers to be used for vetting purposes, as well as applicant contact information. Collecting social media data will enhance the existing investigative process and provide DHS greater clarity and visibility to possible nefarious activity and connections by providing an additional tool set which analysts and investigators may use to better analyze and investigate the case.

Current Actions: This submission is being made to extend the expiration date with a change to the information collected as a result of adding a question about social media to ESTA and to Form I-94W, as described in the Abstract section of this document. There are no changes to the burden hours or to the information collected on Form I-94, or the I-94 Web site.

Type of Review: Revision.

Affected Public: Individuals, Carriers, and the Travel and Tourism Industry.

Interesting.

@rusnivek

Doctoring images to incite fear = not cool #SMEM #PIO #RNCINFO #Safety-SM-16-004

Posted on July 16, 2016 by rusnivek

Lots of BSery going on.

@TKDMike pushed this image out on 07-16-16 at 1902 EST trying to portray that Cleveland is burning dumpsters tonight for the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Orig tweet w/ image found here

That image looked weird to me.

So let’s look a little closer shall we?

A simple online search found this exact image used multiple times.

Once as a meme for protesters in the UK

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Made into a UK Meme

Yep. That’s weird.

Then the same image, slightly better quality found on imgur from 10 months ago.

From imgur

Again, double weird.

Then I found the original.

On flickr by Brian Neumann (2011)

Game-7 from the Stanley Cup in 2011. Appropriate photo credit to Brian Neumann.

In the initial @tkdmike post from 07-16-16, he has embellished the image and added the Quicken Loans Arena logo and an RNC2016 logo to the dumpster. Additionally, behind the gal on the right is also a photoshopped sign for Trump2016. **Clearly against the orig photo by Brian CA Neumann on 06-16-2011 on Flickr. The sign should not read “Trump 2016”, it should read “Sunrise Kitchens” – also note the hockey jersey.

Doctoring images to push political agenda or incite fear = not cool.

Canada image from 2011 –> fake it to be a Cleveland image in 2016 = not cool.

It’s going to be a long NSSE.

Reporting live from the JIC…..

@rusnivek

Coming in on @GCRTA for the #RNC2016 ? Here’s the #RNCINFO

Posted on July 15, 2016 by rusnivek

Like me, are you using the Greater Cleveland Rapid Transit Authority (GCRTA) to get to downtown Cleveland?

Here’s their map and information on their downtown stops.

Also, you can subscribe FOR FREE to their Commuter Alerts program here.

I have found their social media team is very responsive to inquiries. Follow them on Twitter: @GCRTA

BTW-If you happen to see me, say hi and let’s take a #selfie!

@rusnivek