The Security Industry Association announced this week that it recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the County Executives of America, a nonpartisan association for chief elected county officials, to share resources in an effort to support and foster stronger approaches to public safety and emergency management.
According to a statement, collaboration between the two organizations will combine the technological expertise of suppliers with senior county executives’ knowledge about local public safety needs to identify potential gaps in emergency preparedness and how they can be rectified through the implementation of physical security solutions.
Both SIA and CEA hope to utilize the MOU to advance the responsible use of security technologies while empowering county executives to make the best decisions about local emergency preparedness.
"This agreement will facilitate the delivery of timely information to public leaders and policymakers to keep them up to date on the best physical security solutions available to meet their objectives and resolve challenges," said SIA CEO Don Erickson. "We have seen that local leaders require flexibility to adopt security plans and technologies that work best in their jurisdictions, whether they are responding to a threat to their local schools or augmenting resiliency in critical infrastructure such as power plants."
To advance this goal, SIA and CEA will develop vendor-neutral best practices and case studies; produce a webcast series on technology and public policy issues affecting county governments, and coordinate advocacy activities on Capitol Hill, among other initiatives.
