Oakland County officials are analyzing bids from six risk management organizations who want to perform an independent review of the emergency response to the 2021 Oxford High School attack.
The final decision will be made by the end of this month and the chosen company will conduct an after-action review of responses by police, fire, dispatch and emergency services on Nov. 30, 2021, when a student gunman killed four students and injured seven others.
Oakland County spokesman Bill Mullan said a five-member committee from four county departments and one outside expert are ranking the bids and the county will begin negotiating with the top selection in coming days. Interviews began this week.
“When negotiations are complete, then they will enter into a contract. The goal is to complete this before the end of the calendar year,” Mullan said.
The proposals were from five to 103 pages in length, estimates for the duration of work were between 12 weeks and six months, and costs ranged from $62,700 to $497,000.
All the bidders have experience conducting after-action reviews and reports. One of the bidders, Guidepost Solutions, reviewed the attack for Oxford Community Schools and produced a 572-page report in 2023 focused on the role of school officials in the days leading up to and on the day of the mass shooting. The other bidders include: Citadel Safety Group, Centurion Solutions, CNA, National Policing Institute and Security Risk Management Consultants.
In September, the Oakland County commission approved $500,000 for a third-party review of the emergency response to the Oxford attack.
According to the resolution, the commission is seeking “an unbiased analysis of the response and recovery efforts, including the coordination among law enforcement, emergency services and other stakeholders, and offer recommendations for improving safety measures, response and recovery protocols.”
Unlike other mass school shootings in the U.S., no independent after-action review of the Oxford attack has been conducted. A review is typically undertaken by an outside agency to learn from the actions taken by the coordinating police agency and its partners during a mass shooting.
Here is a look at each proposal, listed by company name in alphabetical order:
Centurion Solutions
Cost: $346,325; Length: 20 weeks
The Texas company estimates the review will be broken into three phases — initiating, developing and finalizing the AAR through the collection of information, interviews and meetings. Centurion has developed after-action reports for the Texas Division of Emergency Management; Florida Regional Domestic Security Task Force; North Central Texas Council of Governments; Alabama Center for Preparedness; Kentucky Community and Technical College System and Baylor University. It also developed reports for an anthrax attack in Boca Raton, Fla. and after hurricanes Ike and Rita for the state of Texas.
Citadel Safety Group
Cost: $62,700; Length: 12 weeks
The California company estimates the review will include stakeholder engagement; data collection, document review, interviews and surveys; evaluation and reporting; gap analysis and recommendations; and final report delivery. The company conducted an after-action report for Caravan Facilities Management in Saginaw to evaluate emergency response protocols in large-scale manufacturing environments. In another project, it delivered response evaluation and recommendations for General Motors’ Global Safety Program, addressing gaps in hazard communication, employee safety training, and emergency preparedness.
CNA
Cost: $463,026; Length: 15 weeks
The Virginia nonprofit research and analysis group estimates the review will include four phases — planning; data collection, reconstruction and analysis; report generation and a final report. The company says it has more than 80 years of experience conducting reviews of emergency incidents, including after-action reports of mass shootings at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2023 and the 2017 Republican Congressional baseball practice; reviewing active shooter policy, practice, and training; and directing operational assessments of agency response and recovery efforts.
Guidepost Solutions
Cost: $497,000; Length: Six months
The New York company estimates the review will evaluate the effectiveness of the response and recovery efforts by all involved parties; focus on recovery efforts, including the mental health of the community and first responders; identify strengths and weaknesses in protocols, policies, procedures, and training; and provide actionable recommendations to enhance future preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. Guidepost Solutions is partnering with the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT) at Texas State University and Threat Suppression in its proposal. ALERRT was hired by the Texas Department of Public Safety to complete an after-action report of the May 24, 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
National Policing Institute
Cost: $497,000; Length: Nine months
The Virginia company estimates the review will evaluate the response of all involved public safety agencies and identify strengths and weaknesses in the response efforts. The report will also provide actionable recommendations, categorized into short and long-term goals, to enhance the future preparedness of Oakland County. Its past work includes after-action reviews of the 2017 mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fla. at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice. It conducted an after-action review, assessment, and analysis of the actions of the Los Angeles Police Department in response to First Amendment assemblies and protests in Los Angeles in 2020.
Security Risk Management Consultants
Cost: $327,920; Length: Five months
The Ohio company estimates the review will include best practices, mitigation efforts, emergency management protocols, and technology recommendations in line with existing industry standards and regulations. It conducted an after-action review for Michigan State University of the mass shooting on Feb. 13, 2023. It was also hired by Ohio State University to conduct a review of the OSU Department of Public Safety’s response following the murder of an OSU student in an off-campus shooting outside a fraternity.
Last month, Oxford families asked Attorney General Dana Nessel to launch a state-level investigation into the 2021 Oxford High School attack. Oxford families have called for a comprehensive examination of possible criminal conduct by school staff and failed policies that did not prevent the attack. They are demanding accountability, including criminal culpability of school employees.
Kimberly Bush, Nessel’s spokesperson, said on Wednesday that conversations with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office and the state Legislature remain ongoing.
“And we remain optimistic that we will have a response by year’s end,” Bush said. “With that said, it is our hope that the many elected officials who publicly called for the state to take on this endeavor are equally as committed to advocating for our office to be provided with the necessary resources to complete this additional review.”