A case study of the law enforcement/emergency medical services response to the Virginia Tech mass casualty incident on April 16, 2007

Matthew Lloyd Collins, PhD

doi:10.5055/jem.2007.0020

Authors

Matthew Lloyd Collins, PhD

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5055/jem.2007.0020

Keywords:

mass casualty incident, Virginia Tech, shooting

Abstract

The April 16, 2007, shooting rampage on the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) campus, carried out by Seung-Hui Cho, was the worst gun-related massacre in the history of the United States. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it examines the emergency management literature on interagency communication, collaboration, and coordination as it relates to the Virginia Tech mass casualty incident (MCI). Second, the article presents a single instrumental case study that focuses on the bounded case of the Virginia Tech MCI. Through multiple sources of data collection to include observations, interviews, and document analysis, this study found that 14 law enforcement agencies and 13 emergency medical services agencies responded to the Virginia Tech MCI. With only two exceptions, the law enforcement agencies involved in the response to this MCI responded informally or self-deployed (arrived without being dispatched). However, all of the emergency medical services agencies that responded were formally dispatched. Lessons learned from the emergency management literature review and the case study will be discussed. In conclusion, policy recommendations, which will be generalizable to other rural university campuses and rural organizational settings, will be made.

Author Biography

Matthew Lloyd Collins, PhD

Department of Public Administration, University of Central Florida, Cocoa, Florida.

References

Bowen WM, Bowen CC: Typologies, indexing, content analysis, meta-analysis, and scaling as measurement techniques. In Miller GJ, Whicker ML (eds.): Handbook of Research Methods in Public Administration. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1999.

Merriam SB, Caruson K: Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Altheide D: Ethnographic content analysis. Qual Sociol. 1987; 10: 65-77.

Virginia State Police: Virginia Tech final press briefing page. Available at http://www.vsp.state.va.us/news_release_04-25-07_VATech01.shtm. Accessed 20 June, 2007.

Roanoke Times: Roanoke Times reports between April 17 and 27, 2007.

Kapucu N, Van Wart M: The emerging role of the public sector in managing extreme events: Lessons learned. Admin Soc. 2003; 38: 279-308.

Hardenbrook B: The need for a policy framework to develop disaster resilient regions. J Homeland Secur Emerg Manag. 2005; 2: 1-23.

Wamsley GL, Wolfe J: Refounding Democratic Public Administration. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996.

Bardach E: Getting Agencies to Work Together. Washington, DC: Brookings Institute, 1998.

Kapucu N: Interagency communication networks during emergencies: Boundary spanners in multi-agency coordination. Am Rev Publ Admin. 2006; 36: 207-225.

Comfort LK, Haase TW: Communication, coherence, and collective action: The impact of Hurricane Katrina on communications infrastructure. Publ Works Manag Pol. 2006; 10: 328-343.

Rodríguez C, Langley A, Béland F, Denis J: Governance, power, and mandated collaboration in an interorganizational network. Admin Soc. 2007; 39: 150-193.

Waugh WL, Streib G: Collaboration and leadership for effective emergency management. Publ Admin Rev. 2006; 66: 131-140.

Weber EP, Lovrich NP, Gaffney MJ: Assessing collaborative capacity in a multidimensional world. Admin Soc. 2007; 39: 194-220.

Drabek TE: Strategies for Coordinating Disaster Responses. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado, Natural Research and Applications Information Center, 2003.

McEntire DA: Coordinating multi-organizational responses to disaster: Lessons from the March 28, 2000, Forth Worth Tornado. Disast Prev Manag. 2002; 17: 369-379.

Waugh WL: Regionalizing emergency management: Counties as state and local government. Publ Admin Rev. 1994; 54: 253-259.

Mothershed JL: Disaster planning for terrorism. In McGlown J (ed.). Terrorism and Disaster Management. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press, 2004.