About Racers

An Applied Policy Research Center Dedicated to the Effectiveness of America’s First Responder Community

The Christian Regenhard Center for Emergency Response Studies (RaCERS) is a unique applied research center focused on development of grounded theory through a tightly-focused research agenda: It's emphasis is on studying large-scale events from a perspective of first-responder coordination and its relationship to first responder safety, reduced loss through protection of life, property, and critical systems.

Our action areas include:

Advancing cooperation and promote “best practices” and “good practices” on police-fire-EMS cooperation in homeland security and emergency response.
Collecting information on emergency response elements of disasters including: Oral Histories, GIS Data and Maps, Communication transcripts, Incident Reports, and Digital Photographs.
Developing after-action and lessons learned reports.

Providing analysis of emergency response issues associated with WMD, terrorist, natural, and other hazards.
Publishing periodic industry alerts to major membership organizations, codes and standards bodies, educational institutions, and training officials.
Publishing scholarly and industry articles in the Homeland Security realm.
Collaborate with the Lloyd Sealy Library to make public domain electronic documents available online.

More information on the Center and the College's Homeland Security Research from Research@JohnJay,
Spring 2009 Issue.

About John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY)

Since its founding in 1964, John Jay College of Criminal Justice has been a leader in the field of public safety, with a diverse variety of academic programs and research capabilities devoted to the study of emergency and law enforcement organizations such as the fire service, police departments, emergency management offices, and security concerns unequaled by any other academic institution in the United States. The Center will build on these capabilities to provide an integrated, comprehensive approach to the study of the emergency response to actual disasters such as the attacks on the World Trade Center and Hurricane Katrina as well as the identification of emergency responder technology and equipment needs.
One of the unique aspects of John Jay is its student body. Our students represent a diverse mix reflecting New York, but also the nation and world. Our in-service students include many mid-career emergency responders from virtually every local, state, and federal law enforcement, security, and emergency response organization. As such, we have a unique and long-standing commitment to educating current and future leaders in the emergency response field.

John Jay lost over 60 of its alumni, faculty, and students on 9/11. As such, we are uniquely dedicated to enhanced responder safety and effectiveness at critical incidents. <read more>