Ferguson officials are working on plans to alert residents in case of future unrest, according to public relations strategist Devin James, who said he still represents the city on a pro-bono basis.
“Say for example, if there is an outbreak of something that goes on tonight and a protest goes from peaceful to violent, what are we supposed to tell residents to do? Are we supposed to tell them to evacuate, the National Guard is coming in? So a lot of those type of conversations are what they’re working on now,” James said.
City officials are preparing for all possible outcomes of the grand jury’s investigation into the shooting death of Michael Brown, James said.
“I’m just being real. If there’s no indictment and there’s an evacuation situation, then we need to be prepared for that,” he said. “If there is an indictment and there’s celebratory unrest, we need to be prepared for that. The city and the law enforcement agencies are looking at all scenarios.”
If violence breaks out, James said officials are considering how they would alert residents and instruct them to “hunker down or get out.”All options are being explored, even an evacuation plan, James said. The city is weighing whether to use robotic calls, emails, text messages or simply relying on the media to get the word out.
HT: Stoopid Housewives