The Government Agency and the Selected News Article
The government agency whose communication system is discussed in this paper is Houston Police department. The news article titled “Facebook, Twitter Replace 911 Calls for Stranded in Houston” by Lauren Silverman has been selected for analysis of the communication system within the organization. The article gives a detailed analysis of the real gist as to why the use of the social media has been seen by many as appropriate to use in response to emergencies (Silverman, 2017). Lauren Silverman bases his case in Houston where so many individuals are a bit stranded due to the negligence of most of the emergency response teams in the area. As in most of the cities, the Police are seen to be in the middle of most emergencies and it is the one, which is most, contacted. Their police are expected to do serious monitoring of the activities around the Houston city in terms of emergency as these are considered key areas. The latter stands for the reason that many people from the different areas live in these places and these may include migrants so a serious precaution needs to be taken in terms of response to emergencies so that they are helped (Silverman, 2017). The Police have greatly failed at this, and therefore, the use of the social media has taken the lead to offer the required support.
The Tactics Utilized by the Police
According to the article, the tactics utilized by the Police to respond to emergencies have not been upgraded from time to time. Therefore, the security forces have kept trends, (Revkin, 2017). From the author, it is important to note for long the Police has not realized its weakness and strengthened its communication methods. Therefore, people and the security forces need to remain vigilant of the new plans for recruitment and the community engagements used which put them at a risk of being used in the launch of the emergency missions.
The Use of Social Media Platforms
The fact that some of the social media platforms can do the various tracking of place puts it as one of the technologically adopted strategies (Revkin, 2017). The author mostly values the platforms like Re-edit and the Instagram for being at the forefront of pushing up the rescue initiative. Furthermore, whenever the masses see that there is no way the 911 emergency contact can help them the next option has been the use of the social media by submitting in their own rescue requests. The issue of emergencies is an evolving and dynamic process, therefore, it needs to be handled with a serious attention especially in Houston, which is highly congested. Having in place a working rescue system influenced by the Police and setting up of the alert systems at an early stage strengthens the capacity of the security personnel to do the detection of emergencies (Rangel, 2014). The use of the social media should not be at the forefront of the response to the emergencies as it put the Police in position, which exhibits incompetence. Emergency activities have continued to be consistent throughout Houston and all the other places. Therefore, measures and policies need to be put in place to ensure that both the citizens in the entire state and other places are safe. The successful implementation of the emergency guidelines is a key towards the enhancement of the state’s capacity to do the successful rescue.
Background of the Case
For the past years, the Houston Office responsible for the emergency management has been down to earth in terms of response to most of the emergencies throughout the place (Cretney, 2016). The Harris County Sheriff's office could not provide the required communication service to the masses and hence they had to look for their own alternatives. The Houston emergency centre has for the past years seen this as one of the challenges it has been facing. This has greatly affected the mechanism of service delivery and rendered it ineffective. According to the reports from Cretney (2016), the use of the social media could not be the best alternative as it attracts a lot of the financial challenge and also bound to suffer from issues like those linked to fraud and the others. The Houston Police department has not executed its mandate as required as the communication systems it possesses have not been in a position to render the required services as far as the rescue is concerned. The latter is one of the weaknesses, which have existed for long, and the stakeholders have not played any role in ensuring that a solution is put in place. The 911 emergency contacts has had issue ranging from being busy to not completely going through and no initiative has been undertaken to ensure that a solution is provided as it ought to be (Gardner-Stephen, 2011). In the end, this has left most of the resident in the city stranded as the all the instant rescue services have been ruined.
Organizational Communication Perspective
The organization’s communication perspective is human relations. In Houston Police department, the first aspect of this initiative is the relationship between employees of the police and the citizens. The perspective is important since it exhibits the spirit of togetherness whereby the entire department in the Police responsible for rescue can work collectively to ensure that everything works as it supposed to do (Gardner-Stephen, 2011). Whenever there is lack of unity in an organization like the Police it becomes one of the biggest challenges as far as handling most of the disasters is concerned. In the city of Houston, the Police have greatly pushed for the strengthening of its own Human resource relation to ensure that its entire mission is accomplished successfully without any loopholes to affect it. Furthermore, the Police cooperated with the other emergency handling centers to ensure that there is full assurance of rescue missions being successful (Deitchman, 2010). In this initiative, a lot is shared amongst these different organizations and therefore they get to learn many tactics of handling emergencies from themselves and this makes them be strong at their work.
Application of the Perspective/Concept to the Case
The concept of the Police is important in the way that it brings out the challenges within the emergency system of the city. The argument on the use of the social media gives a detailed elaboration on the significance of having in place an alert system in handling most of the emergencies. For the main stakeholder in the case like the Police, it gives them a hint on the ways they can strengthen themselves and be in a position to execute their own mandate effectively. The strategy is bound to help the resident of the Houston city other than just having to rely only on the services of the social media platforms, which can go down anytime (Deitchman, 2010). The entire concept of the case gives out a link to the Police and the other emergency response centre and it fully defines the way they can all work together to attain a common goal. Furthermore, the case does not pose a failure on the side of the Police but rather the weaknesses it bears when executing its mandate and this is what defines the entire concept. The strengthening of the communication lines serves as the best solution to the stipulated challenges and most important one of the way the Police can handle the disasters.
Recommendations
The case should not only take of the use of the social media platforms in response to emergencies as the only alternative but also rather elaborate on how the Police system can be merged with the platforms. The solution is important since it helps in having a real-time emergency to help most of the residents. Furthermore, the case needs to elaborate more on the causes of most of the problems within the communication lines for the Police and the different ways the problem can be solved.
Conclusion
The case clearly gives the challenges in the emergency system for the city of Houston and the way the use of social media platforms has turned out to be the most used alternative. Even though all this has been transpiring in the city during the times of disaster, the stakeholders like the Police have embarked on strengthening their systems to ensure that proper services are provided to the masses. Throughout the case, a strong elaboration of the facts on disaster response that continue to occur throughout the city of Houston exists. The issue of disasters has greatly taken over most of the states throughout the United States and the entire world and these calls for the serious efforts of the emergency response teams to ensure the safety of the residents just like in the city of Houston.
References
Cretney, R. (2016). Local responses to disaster. Disaster Prevention And Management: An International Journal, 25(1), 27-40. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/dpm-02-2015-0043
Deitchman, S. (2010). US Public Health Lessons Learned from Hurricane Responses. Prehospital And Disaster Medicine, 25(S1), S14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1049023x00022032
Gardner-Stephen, P. (2011). (A303) Sustaining Telecommunications Capability and Capacity during Acute Phase of Disasters and Disaster Responses. Prehospital And Disaster Medicine, 26(S1), s101-s102. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1049023x11003207
Rangel, V. (2014). Dress and disaster: Fashioning creative responses to disaster. Fashion, Style " Popular Culture, 1(2), 161-173. http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/fspc.1.2.161_1
Revkin, A. (2017). Why Houston isn’t the only U.S. community ripe for disaster. Science. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aap8377
Silverman, L. (2017). Facebook, Twitter Replace 911 Calls For Stranded In Houston. (2018). NPR.org. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/08/28/546831780/texas-police-and-residents-turn-to-social-media-to-communicate-amid-harvey
