Urban Area Security Initiatives

The Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI), is designed to set a strategic direction for the enhancement of regional response capability and capacity. The mission is to reduce area vulnerability and prevent terrorism and/or weapons of mass destruction incidents. Through Federal grant funding, UASI is tasked to reduce area vulnerability by strengthening the cycle of response and by ensuring that potential targets are identified, assessed and protected.

O'Gara has vast experience in supporting Urban Area Security Initiative programs. Over the past few years, we have made a significant impact in the State of Ohio and its three UASI designated cities. We were responsible for all 88 counties throughout the State of Ohio in supporting their implementation of the State Homeland Security Assessment and Strategy Program in accordance with the Office of Domestic Preparedness (ODP) guidelines. This required our firm to assign regional coordinators for the Strategy Program to ensure that all jurisdictions correctly submitted risk assessment, capabilities assessment, and needs assessment data through the on-line ODP secure portal. We also assisted each jurisdiction with the selection of the top 10 most "at-risk" facilities within their jurisdiction. Additionally, we assisted each jurisdiction with the development of potential scenarios based on the actual threat and vulnerabilities associated with their jurisdiction. This included writing the scenario for each style of attack, developing mass casualty projections using modeling software for chemical and explosive attacks, and various other scenarios as they pertain to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive events. This enabled each jurisdiction to accurately predict the number of deceased, worried well, stretcher bound, and non-injured personnel for emergency response to a mass casualty event.