Emergency Management in the Courts:
Trends After September 11 and Hurricane Katrina
Thomas
A. Birkland and Carrie A. Schneider
This
article is an overview of trends in emergency preparedness and management in the
courts, with a particular focus on trends following the September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina in 2006. We describe the common features
of disasters and of the management guidance available to courts. Of particular
note is the degree to which Katrina was a catastrophic event that affected a
broad geographical area, while the September 11 attacks constituted a major
disaster but without the widespread damage done by a major hurricane or
earthquake. While much emergency planning is based in anecdote and experience,
we argue that there are important research questions contained in many plans and
planning-guidance documents relating to the nature and extent of emergency
planning in the courts, its variability across jurisdictions, and the extent to
which other branches of government consider court security a priority. Further
research in these questions would better inform efforts to plan and to encourage
planning for extreme events that could affect the courts.
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