Christopher Barney EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This thesis explores the question of how to address a new violent crowd event paradigm to ensure public safety. Continued intergroup violence at crowd events not only jeopardizes public safety but also undermines core expectations of democratic values in a civil society. An analysis of crowd control theory and methodologies used…
CHDS Theses: Executive Summaries
Guided Search: Exploring Technological Solutions for Interior Navigation in the Structural Fire Environment
Kenneth Pravetz EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Firefighters operate in zero visibility, high heat, and toxic environments. Firefighters work in unfamiliar structures and must quickly and efficiently search these structures for lost victims. These challenges lead many firefighters to lose situational and spatial awareness and then get lost. The National Institute of Health and Occupational Safety Firefighter’s line-of-duty…
Convergence, Guns, and the Public Safety Response
Jason Lyon EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A detailed review of relevant literature has revealed that crisis events, such as mass shootings and natural disasters, have triggered dramatic changes in gun-related laws, policies, and social perceptions in the United States. Particularly following Hurricane Katrina and the Sandy Hook school shooting, citizens and legislators called for either relaxing or…
Building Community Capacity and Resilience through Improvements in Economic Recovery
Kevin McMahan EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Disasters in the form of weather patterns, earthquakes, and human-made catastrophes have become more frequent and severe in recent years. These events have a direct economic impact on communities. The losses incurred, in both the short and long term, can overwhelm a community long after the disaster subsides. For example, in…
Blockchain Technology Implementation in the U.S. Customs Environment
Svetlana Angert EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Blockchain technology has been surrounded by hype: first lauded for enabling the creation of cryptocurrencies and starting conversations about digital identity, blockchain technology now promises to revolutionize supply chain management. New blockchain technology applications in international supply chain management are gaining momentum; if these applications are successful, the next step will…
Fully Autonomous Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device—Mitigating Strategies
Kevin Knopf EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Terrorists throughout the world use vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs) to attack targets. The availability of fully autonomous vehicles (FAVs) will change terrorism tactics by eliminating the need for martyrdom when delivering VBIEDs. As such, counter-terrorism forces must ask: What FAV technologies can be adapted to mitigate the threat of…
Applying Technology Acceptance Research to Information Systems Implementation in the Fire Service
John Steward EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The role of a firefighter has remained relatively static over the years, but the way a firefighter documents an incident and accesses logs, maps, and a range of forms is changing from existing paper-based practices to digital media and its related systems. Staffing, incident reporting, response mapping, resource allocation, supply tracking,…
Punching above Their Weight: The Homeland Security Contributions of the U.S. Pacific Territories
Colby Stanton EXECUTIVE SUMMARY It seems today that little attention is paid to the United States’ Pacific territories by those outside the Pacific. Indeed, while the U.S. Caribbean territory of Puerto Rico has received considerable media attention since Hurricane Maria struck, it seems that the United States’ Pacific territories—this thesis focuses on Guam, the Commonwealth…
Autonomous Police Vehicles: The Impact on Law Enforcement
Andrew Gregg EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Technology, like art, is a soaring exercise of the human imagination. —Daniel Bell In the past several years, the autonomous vehicle has evolved from a possibility to an inevitability. AV technology will undoubtedly impact public safety services, including law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement can embrace AV technology with the advent of…
Legal Weed: A Lifesaver?
Michael Schaub EXECUTIVE SUMMARY At the OxyContin launch party in the mid-1990s, Richard Sackler, a member of the family that owns Purdue Pharma, stepped up to the podium to address the audience. Sackler, then senior vice president for sales, proclaimed that the launch party would be “followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury…