U.S. Coast Guard Emergency Response and Disaster Operations: Using Social Media for Situational Awareness

Abstract

Researchers from the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) conducted a research study on the feasibility of using social media information to aid U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) response operations. The aim of this project was to contribute to the mission of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to ensure resilience to disasters by helping DHS understand whether and how social media might be better leveraged to improve situational awareness during response operations. The HSOAC team found that, for decades, the USCG and other boaters have relied on communication channels that are intended specifically for maritime safety. As such, these channels provide specific information that can be used to locate mariners in distress. Yet we also found that a significant proportion of distress calls now come to the USCG through other means, such as cell phones and, indirectly, from 911 calls. This raises several concerns about potential hindrances to the USCG's search-and-rescue mission, including lack of location information, uncertainty about overwater cell coverage, and lack of organizational capacity to collect and analyze social media information. Informed by these findings, we recommend that DHS develop policies and procedures to facilitate sharing cell phone distress location data with the USCG, that the USCG work to ensure that an organization-itself or another-assumes responsibility for understanding cell coverage over water, and that the USCG identify other missions in which social media information could help increase maritime safety and security and enhance environmental protection and response operations. Although the primary focus of this research iv U.S. Coast Guard Emergency Response and Disaster Operations was response operations of the USCG, we anticipate that the findings and recommendations could hold benefits for other mission sets of the USCG, such as prevention-oriented missions. Additionally, we anticipate benefit for other components of the DHS enterprise that conduct response operations-principally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Secret Service.

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