Recent tragic events on school campuses serve to emphasize the need for adopting, implementing and practicing emergency preparedness and violence prevention plans. While it is impossible to eliminate all the risks, measures can be put in place to help minimize tragic situations from occurring and dealing with the emergencies when they do – while keeping the unique, open setting of a higher education campus in check.

Using some of the issues raised by the Virginia Tech tragedy as well as other case studies as a springboard, this presentation will focus on problem awareness, the latest technology solutions and key communications strategies. This presentation will help you:

* Build awareness of campus risks, evaluate the extent of the risks and learn how to begin applying preparation measures.

* Understand who to involve in developing and implementing an emergency communications strategy.

* Identify some of the latest technologies being used to help secure campuses and enhance communications capabilities.

* Understand key factors to consider when adapting security solutions to your campus’ size and budget, including solution scalability, systematic security systems integration, and leveraging existing personnel and operating procedures to maximize benefit and minimize cost.

* Gain an understanding of how electronic security solutions and communications can work in tandem to keep students, faculty, staff, campus police and local law enforcement informed before, during and after an emergency.

Since higher education institutions face some unique challenges, including size of student population and physical layout of campuses, the presentation will focus primarily on college/university strategies. However, there will be some correlations to the K-12 setting. Individuals from all audiences are welcome to join as improved awareness and communication is a key to problem prevention in all school settings.

As Public Safety Advisor specializing in the education market, Patrick Fiel brings more than 30 years of security experience to ADT, having directly managed several school security and law enforcement organizations. For six years, Fiel served as the executive director of school security for the Washington, D.C. Public School System, where he managed 163 school campuses and protected more than 70,000 students and 8,000 employees in the D.C. Capital area. At D.C. Public Schools, Fiel successfully overcame security challenges by implementing comprehensive safety measures, including innovative security technology initiatives and statistical reporting and accountability methods, resulting in reduced crime and a safer, more cost-effective school security program.
Fiel is retired from the United States Army, having served in the Military Police Corps for 22 years. During that time, Fiel was stationed in the United States, Belgium, Germany and South Korea, including operational and management oversight assignments with the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) at the Pentagon, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), and West Point Military Academy.
Celebrating its 132nd anniversary, ADT Security Services, Inc., a unit of Tyco Fire & Security, is the largest provider of electronic security services to nearly six million commercial, government and residential customers throughout North America. ADT's total security solutions include intrusion, fire protection, closed circuit television, access control, critical condition monitoring, electronic article surveillance, radio frequency identification (RFID) and integrated systems.