Janice CasteelCLEVELAND, Tenn. - City and county workers have a new set of policies covering many kinds of threats they may face.
The threats covered by the new, multipage policies include active shooter or someone armed inside a city building; bomb threats or attacks either by telephone, email or mail; severe or winter weather, bio-terrorist incidents or attacks and fires or explosions.
"Each resolution was reviewed by department heads and their staffs as well as the Emergency Management Agency," said City Manager Janice Casteel.
The Bradley County EMA proposed the policies.
"We tweak the policies occasionally based on what has been happening," said Curtis Cline, administrative officer at the EMA.
City Mayor Tom Rowland said all city employees should get copies of the policies, especially the guidelines on what to ask, and how to react, if they get a threat.
"Any employee could receive a phone call with a threat," he said.
Both city and county governments have faced some of the covered threats in recent months.
On March 2, tornadoes hit Bradley County. But unlike the April 27, 2011, tornadoes, schools were in session in March. School administrators' decisions to lock down the buildings with children in place while storms were on the ground drew some criticism from some parents who wanted their children released to them.
Earlier this month, three students at Lake Forest Middle School were apprehended after allegedly exploding some household chemicals they brought from home inside a school trash container.
In December 2011, the entire Bradley County Courthouse was evacuated when a court employee opened a letter that contained a white power and a threat from a prison inmate. The substance turned out to be talcum powder.