That’s Eden Prairie Fire Chief George Esbensen in the white shirt on the right. And that’s Eden Prairie Police Chief Rob Reynolds in the dark shirt on the left. Chief Esbensen and Chief Reynolds were the guests of the Eden Prairie A.M. Rotary Club this morning. They spoke to the club about a new initiative that is being launched publicly today called the Partnership for Emergency Readiness.
The program, which is a public-private partnership and among the first of its kind in the United States, was started with a test group of local businesses in 2006, and is now being activated within the business community. The two Chiefs activated the new PER website shortly after they completed their Rotary presentation. You can see the new website by clicking on this logo:
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The mission of the Partnership for Emergency Readiness is to create a resilient community through utilization of recognized public and private expertise and incentives that will serve as a model for communities around the country. We hope to do that in Eden Prairie by learning what assets our local business community has in case of a public emergency and also by teaching businesses how the City’s public safety functions work during a time of emergency. We do this, quite simply, by building relationships between the government and the business community. Sounds simple, but this initiative is getting some state and national attention for being unique.
One of America’s top homeland security experts, Stephen Flynn, Ph.D., recently highlighted Eden Prairie’s initiative in his just-released book, “The Edge of Disaster: Rebuilding a Resilient Nation.” Flynn says Eden Prairie’s PER is “an outstanding example of a community-based initiative that is a model for how cities and towns around America should be fostering the kind of preparedness we must have to deal with 21st century hazards.”
Chief Esbensen maintains that recent disasters and acts of terrorism have demonstrated the need for a new approach to emergency preparedness, which is why the PER was formed in 2006 between the City of Eden Prairie and several Eden Prairie businesses. He did the initial formation work for the initiative along with some friends from the Fire Department who have experience in the area of international trade and security.
In all likelihood, the PER program will be used more often for natural disasters than the man-made variety. It’s a program that we will use to help each other locally until federal or state resources can get engaged and available. We also believe it will be helpful to the Police and the businesses as a means to communicate crime related information as well. If, for example we experience a series of car thefts in a particular part of town, we can route the information about the suspects to the members of PER and they in turn to their employees who can then help the Police by watching and calling if they see the bad guys in action.
Now that the foundation for the program has been laid, the City is actively recruiting new members. The PER website, edenprairieper.org, provides more information about the program and why it’s beneficial to join.
It’s a unique initiative based on very old fashioned values. Check it out.
