West Virginia Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management Story Archives

School Safety Conferences Planned Across W.Va. For Spring

The West Virginia Department of Education plans to hold school safety conferences for educators and administrators this spring.

The one-day conferences are still in the planning phases, and dates have not been finalized, but the sessions are scheduled for May in Lewisburg, Romney, Wheeling and Charleston. The regional conferences will bring together county and school administrators, as well as school safety personnel, to share administrative updates that are important during a crisis event.

Topics include updates to how plans are submitted on the state’s system and the coding of student data.

“The purpose of these trainings will be to provide support with the updated crisis response planning tool,” Jonah Adkins, director of the office of pre-K through 12 academic support for the West Virginia Department of Education told the state Board of Education at their monthly meeting March 13.

The FBI will offer insights on local, regional and national issues facing schools and school-age children, and the Office of Homeland Security will brief attendees on its work with communities and schools.

“We do have FBI agents that will be present with us as well, just to share the most current research for effective planning and preparation for emergencies,” Adkins said. “As always, I’m continuing to work with our partners at Homeland Security to refine and strengthen our safety protocols and processes.”

The Department of Education regularly holds regional training conferences, such as to prepare schools for the implementation of the Third Grade Success Act.

New Homeland Security Inspector General Creates ‘To Do’ List

“My work is when there are allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and maybe even matters that rise to a level of criminal investigation,” Honaker said.

As a House of Delegates member in the 2023 general session, Mike Honaker, R-Greenbrier, said he had no idea in voting for House Bill 3360, to create the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Homeland Security, that he would end up holding that position.

“Absolutely not,”’ Honaker said. “It was never discussed, and never occurred to me.”

Appointed by Gov. Jim Justice, Honaker said his primary duty is to conduct inquiries and, where needed, full scope investigations.

“My work is when there are allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and maybe even matters that rise to a level of criminal investigation,” Honaker said. “Those investigations would be conducted in conjunction with the appropriate law enforcement agency if that were something that was necessary.”

Honaker is Inspector General for all the agencies that are under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security. Those include West Virginia State Police, Division of Corrections, Fire Marshal’s Office, Parole Board, the Division of Emergency Management, the Division of Justice and Community Services. He says there’s “about somewhere north of 5000 employees” in Homeland Security positions.

Honaker said he will work with the Corrections Inspector General on the many allegations and lawsuits facing that department and conduct his own prison inspection tour.

“I’m going to be traveling around and personally visiting some of the prisons and jails and looking at the actual conditions there to make sure that we’re doing the right thing,” he said. “There is obviously pending litigation, so we are constantly reviewing that information as it comes in to see if there are more things we need to be doing or looking at to make adjustments.”

He hopes to create an internal homeland security fraud, waste, and abuse hotline.

“So that employees within organizations that maybe see things that they would not otherwise be comfortable reporting, they could do that anonymously,” he said.

Honaker said he will let the State Police investigations run their course, not ruling out any reviews.

“I don’t think there’s any cause for me to become involved because those investigations have been taking place for some months now,” Honaker said. “They are being appropriately investigated. There could be some cases that we would go back and review to maybe make sure they were handled appropriately with the previous administration.”

Honaker plans to conduct staff inspections of all departments and agencies, to ensure accountability.

“Are there checks and balances? Are there systems of accountability to make sure that these things are not occurring in agencies, whether it’s mismanagement of money or fraud, waste or abuse,” Honaker said. “We would only know that by actually sitting down with employees, reviewing files, interviewing employees, about their position.”

Honaker said he will report investigation findings to Justice and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Sorsaia. He said he will not determine guilt or innocence.

“What I will fully do is conduct thorough, complete, fair, impartial investigations, to determine the facts and to produce reports that would allow the Secretary or the governor to make logical conclusions as to whether the allegations are substantiated or not,” he said. “I have no interest in being anything less than completely fair and impartial.”

Nearly All 2016 Flooding Recovery Projects Finished, Except Schools

Seven years after the historic floods of 2016, the state has finally completed nearly all of the houses and bridges that were damaged in the deadly flood.

Garner Marks, the general counsel for the West Virginia Development Office, told the Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding that 99 percent of the housing projects, 100 percent of the bridges and 99 percent of the demolition projects had been completed.

“The State of West Virginia was allocated $106,494,000 with 12 years to expand that mitigation funding to fortify resiliency measures to decrease the impact of future flooding events and other natural hazards,” Marks said. “In the same 12 counties that were designated for these disaster recovery funds. those include Clay, Greenbrier, Kanawha, Nicholas, Fayette, Jackson, Lincoln, Monroe, Pocahontas, Roane, Summers and Webster counties, each of these projects has to meet the HUD definition for mitigation, which are those activities that increase resiliency to disasters and reduce or eliminate the long term risk of loss of life injury, damage, to and loss of property and suffering and hardship by lessening the impact of future disasters.”

The state’s response to the flood cleanup was slow initially and the state was even put on notice by FEMA for slow use of the more than $400 million set aside for recovery efforts. Problems with West Virginia Rise were straightened out after the program was turned over to the West Virginia National Guard.

As of June 30, 2023 the program has completed 385 housing projects, 54 bridges that serve 121 homes, and 85 demolition projects working with outside groups like West Virginia VOAD or Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.

In a separate presentation to the committee, Matt Blackwood, the deputy director of the West Virginia Emergency Management Division, said the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) agreed to spend more than $400 million for public assistance and flood mitigation in West Virginia.

“You can see we have about $436 million, that we spent approximately $246 million,” Blackwood said. “The remaining about $190 million mainly relates to school projects here in Kanawha County, and also in Nicholas County.”

The unspent money will be declared officially spent once the schools are finalized, Blackwood explained. Members of the committee asked Blackwood to prepare a report for the committee on the status of those schools. Nicholas County has had significant delays causing costs to increase well beyond what was budgeted by FEMA.

MU Students Work With Homeland Security

Eight Marshall University students are working with the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security’s Fusion Center through an internship.

The students kicked off a ten-month-long internship this summer where they will rotate through positions with the Fusion Center’s Open-Source Intelligence Threat Group, Human Trafficking Section and Digital Forensics Lab.

Jeff Sandy recently retired as cabinet secretary for the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security. He said he had a wonderful experience participating in a similar program at Marshall University.

“The hands-on work experience gave me an opportunity to become a special agent, sheriff and cabinet secretary,” Sandy said. “This is a special program, and I know it will help these talented students achieve their goals after graduation.”

This first round of interns participating in the West Virginia Fusion Center’s Marshall Cyber Forensics and Security Internship Program include Abrianna Angus, Alisha Joseph, Emma Meadows, George Urling, Hannah Carroll, Kaylin Hayes, Reece Thomas and Robert Miller II.

The program started last month and will continue through May 2024.

Recruitment and selection of the next cohort of interns will begin in the middle of the spring 2024 semester. Program coordinators are looking for students with knowledge and experience in open-source intelligence collection and analysis as well as cyber forensics.

Participants will graduate with the advantage of real–world experience when looking for a job, according to John Sammons, associate director of Marshall’s Institute for Cyber Security.

“This is such a great opportunity for our students,” Sammons said. “It gives them significant real-world experience ahead of graduation and pays them while they do it. The program pays the students enough that they can make a major dent in their tuition if they choose to do so. We’d like to also note that students from multiple programs are participating.”

West Virginia State Police Sees Second Lawsuit Notice From Victims Of Alleged Hidden Camera

Another notice to sue the West Virginia State Police has been filed over a camera hidden in the State Police Academy’s women’s locker room.

The notice comes from Winfield-based attorney David Moye. He intends to sue the agency on behalf of five female plaintiffs who were training at the academy, concerned over possible exposure during the time the recording device was placed.

The letter gives the state government the mandatory 30 days notice of intent to file a lawsuit.

Both Moye’s law firm and the West Virginia State Police were unable to comment directly on the notice, but both groups confirmed with West Virginia Public Broadcasting that the notice itself had been filed.

This is the second such notice for intent. Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva sent a similar letter on behalf of three other women late last March. Toriseva’s list has grown to at least 20 clients.

Both notices come after a state Department of Homeland Security investigation revealed an unnamed senior state trooper placed the camera sometime before March 2016. The camera wasn’t discovered until after the trooper’s death. The investigation also found that other troopers destroyed evidence in the form of a thumb drive containing video from the camera.

Interim State Police Superintendent Jack Chambers has said he will determine who may have been victimized. A letter from Chambers sent to West Virginia Public Broadcasting last month said all victims identified will be offered counseling and therapy services, and that the Department of Homeland Security is in the process of hiring an independent ombudsman with experience in counseling.

“We are working with Marshall University Health,” Maj. Jim Mitchell, chief of staff services for the state police, said. “We are currently still in negotiations with them to be able to provide any kind of professional assistance, aid or help to any potential victims.”

Most recently, during an interim legislative meeting Monday, Chambers told the Joint Standing Committee on Finance that an internal investigation is moving toward resolution.

Toriseva Law is an underwriter of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Department of Homeland Security Updates School Swatting Incidents

Law enforcement has updated the number of schools targeted during Wednesday’s statewide false reporting incident.

The West Virginia Department of Homeland Security was monitoring at least a dozen false reports of active shooters at schools across the state Wednesday.

Thursday morning, that number was updated to 19 false reports across 17 counties, but officials reiterated that all calls received have been deemed not credible.

False threats were received in Barbour, Berkeley, Cabell, Greenbrier, Hancock, Harrison, Jefferson, Kanawha, Marion, McDowell, Mercer, Monongalia, Ohio, Raleigh, Randolph, Taylor, and Wood counties.

These types of false reports, commonly referred to as “swatting,” are an attempt to bring a large, armed law enforcement presence to a certain location.

Swatting ties up emergency services and can be deadly.

“Our ongoing priority is to ensure the health, safety and well-being of our students and communities,” said Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Rob Cunningham. “We will continue our investigation of each event and are prepared to respond again if needed. We ask the community to download our emergency response phone app and assist us in keeping our communities safe.”

Homeland Security officials said each threat received is being investigated alongside local and federal authorities.