ASSOCIATE Magazine FBINAA Q4-2023

NATIONAL ACADEMY UPDATE

FBINAA.ORG | Q4 2023

Sherie Rebollo

C.O.P.S. Kids 2023 back at the FBI Academy!

O n a Sunday in May 2023, 100 children of fallen law enforce ment officers — escorted by over 200 police motorists — arrived at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, for the annual C.O.P.S. Kids event. C.O.P.S. (Concerns of Police Survivors) is a nonprofit organization founded to support family members of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. The children visit every year during National Police Week to connect with other kids going through similar situations at home and to have a fun-filled day together. Since COVID, we were unable to host as usual at the FBI Academy. But this year we were back! FBI National Academy (NA) Session 286 worked hard to ensure the children had a great day. Kids attended counsel ing sessions, had lunch, and enjoyed a fun carnival with cotton candy, popcorn, snow cones, bounce houses, rock walls, and more. The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team provided tours where the children explored tactical vehicles, played games while wearing tactical gear, and met some of the K9s. National Academy staff, NA students, and FBI new agent and intelligence analyst trainees also volunteered to make the day special. include instruments from both vendors, if applicable. However, information-sharing processes and procedures should be estab lished prior to the training exercise. Additionally, emergency management and fire rescue operations typically have personnel dedicated to logistics. Law enforcement, medical examiners and coroners, and crime labora tory personnel typically do not have staff assigned to this function until the disaster event is looming or has already occurred. All stakeholders should include logistics in their training and disaster planning. While WebEOC offers the ability to track information, the planning for what information needs to be tracked should be all-inclusive. There should be a single point of entry for missing person information, including vetting the information provided by family members; for example, the correct spelling of names and the correct date of birth are critical to searching fingerprint data bases. One wrong number or letter can prevent an identification. Also, when family members are reporting a missing person, their biological relationship to the missing person is critical to the DNA identification process. Understanding the wide range of needs is dependent on full collaboration. A few questions to consider: What are the require ments for data upload and storage? What are the power needs for the required equipment? How will that be provided? If the need cannot be met immediately, what is Plan B? Which individuals need to be on speed dial to provide what is needed? Who is re sponsible for maintaining that contact list? Asking and answering

At the end of the day, the kids walked through a tunnel of NA students and law enforcement motorists from around the country. They held their “swag bags” open and received patches, coins, and other goodies from the officers before loading onto their buses to head back to Washington, D.C.

C.O.P.S. Kids was a huge success, and it left a profound impact on everyone involved.

Joining you in Service,

Sherie Rebollo Unit Chief, FBI National Academy

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critical questions ahead of time, and re-evaluating these ques tions annually based on new technologies, facilitates a confident, swift, comprehensive response. A PATH FORWARD On June 14, 2021, ten days prior to the building collapse in Surfside, Florida, the Miami-Dade Chief Medical Examiner and MDPD’s current Chief Scientific Officer exchanged e-mails discuss ing the benefits associated with the use of Rapid DNA technology by multiple agencies throughout Miami-Dade County, including the Medical Examiner Department, to respond to mass fatalities. Ultimately, law enforcement agencies and medical examiners could then respond within a short time frame with multiple instru ments, creating a regional Rapid DNA consortium that could then be expanded statewide. The Chief Medical Examiner replied, “The concept of being prepared for a future mass fatality is appealing.” The infrastructure for an emergency response already exists. On a local, state, and national level, there is a strong need to collab oratively incorporate new technologies wherever possible. These efforts need to occur across all affected entities including, but not limited to, law enforcement, fire rescue, emergency operations centers, medical examiners, coroners, and crime laboratories. Further, the even greater need is for the development of emer gency response plans that include all stakeholders. The silos of information can be eliminated; the technology exists to move for ward collectively. A cooperative effort that capitalizes on existing

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