In September 2010, Gainesville and Alachua County, Florida, demonstrated that by calmly following the responsibilities and relationships outlined in an emergency operations plan, local governments and residents can respond to different types of emergency.

In “How the Worst Publicity Can Bring Out the Best in a Community,” the March PM magazine’s cover story, authors Russ Blackburn, city manager, Gainesville, and Randall Reid, county manager, Alachua County, write how city and county employees worked hours in response to the threatened Koran burning in Gainesville, helping ensure that their community remained safe and that Pastor Terry Jones’s right to free speech was protected. In the end, Gainesville’s reputation as a city of tolerance and diversity withstood international media scrutiny.

Social media networks make instantaneous global communication possible for every individual with access to the Internet. As Gainesville and Alachua County found out, these media networks can quickly intensify the acts or the threatened acts of a few individuals and rally others to participate or protest. They also are able to enhance or damage the image of an entire community.

Here are points that the two managers shared with readers:

• Increase opportunities to prepare and implement an appropriate and timely response to a crisis with early situational awareness and surveillance of possible local terror threats.
• Adapt, use, and revise existing local emergency response plans and partnerships as necessary to counter terroristic threats to the community.
• Prepare communities to respond to terrorist threats while maintaining the public health and welfare by providing consistent, accurate, and timely public information and education.
• Enable local elected officials and other appropriate community leadership groups to articulate the values and vision of the community to the media.

For more information, read Blackburn’s and Reid’s firsthand account in PM magazine.