LEAPS.TV CFATS Program

Earlier today I sent of the last of my contribution to the “Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Overview for Law Enforcement” training program that will be shown on LEAPS.TV next week (Wednesday, February 16th at 1:00 pm EST). This has been my first detailed foray into on-line education development and it is now in the hands of the post-production crew at LEAPS.TV.

I’ve done a wide variety of training development over the years and just last year did some content work for a computer based training program. This was different though. I did the typical content development, the voice recording, and some of the audio editing (a new experience). We’ll have to wait until Wednesday to see if Jim Cavanagh and his team at LEAPS.TV can make me sound respectable.

This program arose out of a discussion with Jim that started after I did a blog posting on a Suspicious Activity Reporting training program done by LEAPS.TV. Jim read the comments that I left on his site after I completed the training, checked out my blog and contacted me to thank me for my review. One thing led to another and Jim asked if I would be interested in doing a CFATS introduction for law enforcement personnel. The rest will be history on Wednesday afternoon (and it will be available for on-line viewing starting on the 17th).

The program is designed to give local law enforcement personnel a brief introduction to CFATS and a brief overview of some of the things they will need to take into account when planning for a counter-terrorism tactical response at a CFATS facility. Since almost all facilities will rely on law enforcement personnel to provide a tactical response to a terrorist attack on their facility, I thought that a program like this would be helpful to that community.

If this goes over well, Jim has talked to me about doing a series of more detailed programs getting into some of the things that police forces will have to understand to provide an appropriate response. I would address some issues like chemical safety, hazcom, CVI.

Anyway, if you know some police personnel that might have to respond at a CFATS facility, please point them at this class. It is free of charge (registration required) and arrangements can be made to receive continuing education credits for watching the course (and a taking an on-line test; that’s what I delivered today). The run time for this will be somewhere around 30 to 40 minutes (the final edit hasn’t been done yet).

If you get a chance watch this program, please let me know what you think. I’m thick skinned and I really do want this to work out. I think the underpaid law enforcement folks that we trust to protect us everyday could use this type of training if they work around chemical facilities. Please, help me to make this a worthwhile training program.