In response to the COVID-19 crisis, West Bloomfield Township was the first township in Oakland County to activate its Emergency Operations Center, which brought together all major stakeholders within the Township’s government, allowing them to coordinate their responses to help residents.
“We identified several items from day one of this crisis that we knew were going to be important for us to get right,” Deputy Chief of Police and Public Information Officer for West Bloomfield Township Curt Lawson explained.
Lawson said the team first wanted to make sure they communicated not only with each other at the department level but also provided verified and reliable information to community residents, such as need-to-know items like the town hall and library closings, playground closures, how to pay invoices and reminders on how to stay protected from COVID-19.
“We have been in constant contact with county officials at the Health Department and with the county’s Emergency Operations Center,” Lawson said back in April. “The information we receive (there is a lot of it), we try to push out in a way that educates our community on what is going on but not in a way that creates additional anxiety.”
Throughout the spring, all important information was shared with the community through multiple platforms, including West Bloomfield Michigan Police Department’s Facebook page, wbtownship.org, West Bloomfield PD’s Twitter account and Nixle, as well as during interviews on both 89.3 FM and Civic Center TV.
Additionally, those assigned to work at the Emergency Operations Center continued to find ways to keep its own team healthy, so the Township’s government could continue to effectively operate. In fact, all of the public safety departments worked at full staff, always maintaining a good supply of personal protection gear to keep both first responders and residents healthy.
“Mr. Kaplan, Township Supervisor, and his team continue to look for innovative ways to keep providing the services needed, requested and expected during this crisis,” Lawson said. “Feedback from our residents has been very positive."
Moving forward, Lawson said West Bloomfield Township will continue to monitor data coming from its Emergency Operations Center, the county’s Emergency Operations Center, Health and Human Resources and the Governor’s Office. Additionally, the Township will keep using local media, its website and social media as means of communicating.
“In any crisis, it is important to be informed and to remain flexible while continuing to move forward in a positive direction,” Lawson said. “Our community has the best public safety departments in the state, and we are committed to providing the very best service to our community.”