Friday 8 January 2016

Emergency Information, Procedures and Contingencies: How the public is informed of an attack


Emergency information regarding attacks to the UK is rarely distributed by leaflet, but in targeted areas such as transport hubs it is sometimes used. The above, very specific, leaflet was distributed in 2014 by Metropolitan Police to inform people what steps they should take during a firearms attack. 

This is the companion booklet to the Protect and Survive film series, and to the right is the US equivalent. A booklet seems much more appropriate in this case than a folded leaflet due to the trivial, spammy and take-away-esque aesthetic of many leaflets and the connotations they carry. Extreme emergency information is to be distributed and retained, not discarded, and so they must be durable and useful - something you want to keep. 


Whilst imminent attack alerts were traditionally delivered by sirens, there are now digital solutions in place to work both alongside and as stand-alone systems. Emergency alert systems broadcast messages on TV and Radio, and alerts are now delivered en-masse to smartphones. Following an attack and the potential destruction of all standard broadcasting services, BBC Radio 4 would take on its role as the national emergency broadcaster. A leaflet on emergency public notifications would have to inform them that alerts are delivered in this way, and that they must be abided by. 




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