{"id":19034,"date":"2020-11-01T20:11:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T02:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rnrachicago.org\/?p=19034"},"modified":"2020-11-01T20:11:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T02:11:11","slug":"city-of-chicago-agencies-announce-preparedness-and-safety-plans-ahead-of-election-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/?p=19034","title":{"rendered":"City of Chicago Agencies Announce Preparedness and Safety Plans Ahead of Election Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nSeveral City public safety agencies announced their 10-day preparedness and safety plan for the upcoming Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and for all of next week. Over the past month, the City\u2019s departments and\u00a0agencies have been working in conjunction with the Chicago Board of Elections to deploy resources and supports at every polling station and neighborhood to ensure residents can safely participate in this year\u2019s\u00a0election and exercise their First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

As part of the 10-day safety plan, the Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) beginning on Friday 10\/30. \u00a0 This is a citywide effort to monitor any activity and\u00a0crowds and coordinate resource requests and responses with City departments, agencies, the Chicago Board of Elections as well as county, state and federal partners.<\/p>\n

Over the past several weeks, OEMC has held multiple preparedness workshops with the City\u2019s public safety and infrastructure departments, businesses, agencies and partners. These workshops provided an overview\u00a0of the City\u2019s efforts and conducted various hazard scenarios, including severe weather, COVID-19 outbreaks and possible protests stemming from not knowing who the winner of the presidential election in the days\u00a0following Election Day.<\/p>\n

To supplement on-the-ground public safety resources,\u00a0the Chicago Police Department (CPD) increased its patrol beyond its regular deployments starting Friday 10\/30. \u00a0As part of this effort to further ensure the City can\u00a0rapidly respond to all situations, CPD has cancelled days off Department-wide for Halloween and Election Day, and for select citywide teams during the week of the election.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the Department is focused on crimefighting prevention efforts, officers will continue to ensure residents expressing their First Amendment rights are protected and given the public safety supports they need to stay\u00a0safe. Additionally,\u00a0the City will deploy more than 60 infrastructure assets that will be strategically positioned by OEMC to support and protect neighborhood commercial corridors and critical businesses in the event of\u00a0potential public safety incidents.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

To ensure residents can safely vote in-person this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) has been working closely with the Chicago Board of Elections to ensure all\u00a0polling locations have a COVID-19 prevention plan. These public health plans provide every polling location with cleaning and disinfection protocols, traffic flow guidelines to ensure social distancing and required face-coverings for all employees.<\/p>\n

With expected rallies and large gathering demonstrations surrounding the election, the City has communicated heavily with Chicago\u2019s business community to ensure they have the resources and\u00a0guidance<\/a>\u00a0needed to be\u00a0prepared for such activity. The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection encourages businesses to take the following steps:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Sign-Up for ChiBiz Alerts: Text \u201cCHIBIZ\u201d to 6-7-2-8-3<\/div>\n
\u2022 Join Chicago\u2019s Public and Private Partnership Initiative (CP3): Visit\u00a0preparedchicago.com<\/a><\/div>\n
\u2022 Stay Alert! Call 9-1-1 if you witness suspicious activity<\/div>\n

OEMC is also launching a Business Operation Center (BOC), a physical facility created for the private sector partners to exchange real-time information and provide situational awareness during\u00a0public safety or public health issues. A first-of-its-kind effort, the BOC is designed to expand the communication and operational components by utilizing businesses and key subject-matter experts with the ability to\u00a0contact security onsite and distribute accurate information.<\/p>\n

OEMC is also reminding residents that they can also receive emergency alerts for updates on street closures and public transportation by subscribing to Chicago\u2019s text or email alert system at\u00a0NotifyChicago.org<\/a>\u00a0or follow\u00a0OEMC on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: \u00a0Alderman Reilly Reports 10\/30\/2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several City public safety agencies announced their 10-day preparedness and safety plan for the upcoming Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and for all of next week. Over the past month, the City\u2019s departments and\u00a0agencies have been working in conjunction with the Chicago Board of Elections to deploy resources and supports at every polling station […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsite.rnrachicago.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}