Emergency Response & Management with Civilian Emergency Response Teams
Weather & Environmental Hazards –
The Challenges of Awareness, Research, and Education in NJ
Friday, November 14, 2008
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is part of a federal, community-based initiative that encourages community and individual preparedness through education and training that covers disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic medical operations, light search and rescue, and team operations. Relying on community volunteers and through community outreach the CERT program provides pre-incident awareness that assists in preparing local communities to effectively respond to disaster and crisis. This session will explore the CERT program in use here in New Jersey and how this program can be effectively implemented in the public as well as the private sector.
Dr. James J. Drylie began his academic pursuits as a student-athlete at the former Kean College in 1975. He received a B.A. degree in Political Science with a concentration in Criminal Justice in 1979. Dr. Drylie completed his first Masters degree (M.S.) in Criminal Justice Administration at the former Jersey City State College in 1987. He received a second Masters (M. Phil.) from the City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2003 and a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice at CUNY in 2006. Dr. Drylie’s dissertation (Suicide by Cop: A Case Study Analysis of How Police Practitioners View and Understand Victim-Scripted Suicide) has been published with the VDM Publishing House, Saarbrücken, Germany, and he has recently co-authored a textbook; Violanti, J.M. & Drylie, J.J. (2008) Copicide: Concepts, Cases, and Controversies of Suicide by Cop. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
After graduating from Kean, Dr. Drylie entered into a career in law enforcement with the West Orange, NJ Police Department where he served with distinction as a sworn officer and Director of Police. Dr. Drylie was actively involved in programs and operations pertaining to State and federal homeland security as the Law Enforcement Task Force Planner assigned to the New Jersey Urban Areas Security Initiative, Rapid Deployment Force. He was a part of several local, state, and federal deployments during declared states of emergency as a commanding officer of the Essex County Rapid Deployment Team. Retiring at the rank of police captain, after twenty-five years of service, Dr. Drylie joined the faculty at Kean University in September 2006. Dr. Drylie is the advisor for Delta Upsilon, the Kean University Chapter of the Alpha Phi Sigma, the National Criminal Justice Honor Society.
Dr. Drylie remains active in the field of emergency management through volunteer and consulting work with various local, county and state emergency management organizations. Currently, he serves as the Emergency Management Coordinator for the Township of Frelinghuysen, Warren County, and is actively working with area coordinators in developing Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) in the northern Warren County area.