DHS Risk Assessment

With that we get into unclear territory of how much power the government should have in the name of national security. With such a large plethora of things that can be affected by natural and manmade disasters, the private sector is a logical partner for protecting the homeland and its interest. “In the years since 2011, the country has struggled to find the balance between protecting public health and safety and protective civil liberties.” This idea is one reason why the government will not attempt to secure every possible target. Also, “The federal government does not have the financial resources to shoulder 100 percent of America’s homeland security responsibilities, those who own and operate business have a natural incentive to protect them. This private incentive that is innate in infrastructure is also a global phenomenon. The United States is not the only country facing manmade and natural threats, and in order to best mitigate risk, we have come to a realization that we have to push out our borders far beyond our ports edge. Interagency coordination is a concept that highlights that expansion. The United States and our allies overseas work hand in hand to coordinate and share intelligence that allows for all involved to continue to evolve into safer countries. Globalization brought with it the capacity to travel freely and quickly, critical infrastructure in countries around the world depend on the ability of goods and people to travel quickly and efficiently across borders. That acts as private incentive for countries to coordinate on an international level through interagency cooperation or the conventions and law to best protect their general interest which is the safety of their

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was formed more than a decade ago with a very significant mission of safeguarding America's homeland from hazards, threats, and national disasters. This department conducts its mission through securing the country's borders, preventing terror attacks, and responding to incidents or threats to its citizens (Miller, n.d.). Generally, the most important roles of the Department of Homeland Security are to lead a concerted national effort in securing the United States and preserving the American way of life. The department was established in 2002 in reaction to the 9/11 terror attacks and has since developed a nationwide strategic plan for evaluating and updating its mission statement and effectiveness of operations. These plans can be updated and transformed to accomplish the needs of the Department for Homeland Security and the American people.

Planning ties with one of the National Preparedness Goal’s mission area, that is prevention. The 9/11 events made DHS to aggressively change its focus to an “all hazards” approach. Prevention is a core component to accomplish this objective. However, for an effective prevention requires thorough planning. The private sector provides this type of service and DHS may hire a private sector entity to develop a prevention plan for them. In planning, all levels of government and private sector entities must coordinate with one another in developing and executing courses of action to prevent or reduce the impact of natural disasters or terrorist attack (Homeland Security, 2011). According to the National Preparedness Goal, planning is one of the mission are capabilities and preliminary targets of prevention (Homeland Security, 2011, p. 5). The private sector’s impact in planning with the DHS is essential for an effective prevention in support of the National Preparedness

Bush, he announced that the United States was becoming a hit target for the terrorists threatening the civil liberties (GOA, 2014). For that very reason, he created the Department of Homeland Security. Currently, the DHS's strategic plan focuses on preventing terror attacks and enhancing security. "Preventing terrorist attacks on the homeland remains and ought to stay the foundation of homeland security" (GOA, 2014). However a review of DHS's programs, including those related to counterterrorism, nurture inquiries about whether preventing terror attacks is the core mission of the agency. Additionally, checking on whether the programs initiated has recorded any progress in safeguarding U.S from threats of terror attacks (Department of Homeland Security,

After the attacks on September 11th, 2001 the United States was forced to reassess its policies over the defense of the country within its borders. Until that time the United States’ homeland security was under the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice (Masse, O’Neil, & Rollins, 2007). After the attack the Executive branch of the government created a new organization that would be responsible for deciding where the biggest threats to the country were. This was the birth of the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security is responsible for assessing all risk to the Nation within its borders and developing way to mitigate these threats before a disaster can take place. One of the documents that the Department of

values, building security partnerships, and building a culture of resilience (President 2011, 4). The DHS has shown progress in building security partners through the department’s efforts in information sharing efficiency as demonstrated in fusion centers. Building a culture of resilience entails the DHS mission of understanding and reducing the vulnerability of the nation, and mitigating the damage from an attack. Evaluating the DHS’s progress in this task is difficult, because it is uncertain how much of the nation’s resilience is inherent, and how much is a product of the DHS’s actions. Future terrorism projections state that weapons of mass destruction and explosive devices will be more accessible to terrorists and organizations (West 2012, 4). A suggested strategy to combat this forecasted threat is to develop stronger relationships with foreign governments and other stakeholders. The DHS will need to build a stronger relationship with other government departments in order to access the resources and intelligence to build the suggested relationship with foreign governments and stakeholders to meet this future threat.

One of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) most important missions is protecting critical infrastructure. Assessing CI vulnerabilities is critical to strengthening their capabilities and ensuring resiliency. Since most of them are privately owned, the Department partners with the private sector in conducting voluntary, non-regulatory vulnerability assessments (“Critical Infrastructure”, 2015). According to Homeland Security (2015), vulnerability assessments are the foundation National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) which outlines how the government and the private sector work together to manage risks to achieve security and resiliency goals (“Critical Infrastructure”, 2015). Protecting America’s electrical power grid is especially complicated because all of the other CIs depend on the energy sector’s

The Department of Homeland Security from the beginning used worst case analysis or better known as capabilities based planning (CBP) as a way to be prepared for disasters (Roberts, 2007). Many adults nowadays that were old enough to remember 9/11 can attest to how scared Americans were. The most frightening thing at the time and what people worried about was another major attack on U.S. soil. An enormous terrorist attack is a clear example of worst case scenarios

The Department of Homeland Security had also formed a division to analyze intelligence gathered by the FBI, CIA, and many other police agencies and military agencies (Swanson, Charles R., Territo, Leonard, Taylor, Robert W., 90). Barack Obama appointed Janet Napolitano as the third secretary of the department and is also the governor in the area of terrorism and immigration reform. Napolitano has played an important role in strengthening border security by increasing forces along the border, and increasing resources and technology to aid in the fight against terrorism (Swanson, Charles R., Territo, Leonard, Taylor, Robert W., 90). The DHS has become an important role to the security of the public in the United States.

The National Response Framework is a guide designed to assist local, State, and Federal governments in developing functional capabilities and identifying resources based on hazard identification and risk assessment. It outlines the operating structure and identifies key roles and responsibilities. It established a framework to identify capabilities based on resources and the current situation no matter the size or scale. It integrates organizational structures and standardizes how the Nation at all levels plans to react to incidents. The suspected terrorist attack will have health, economic, social, environment and political long-term effects for my community. This is why it is essential that local government’s

“We have learned as a Nation that we must maintain a constant, capable, and vigilant posture to protect ourselves against new threats and evolving hazards. But we have also learned that vigilance and protection are not ends in and of themselves, but rather necessary tools in the service of our national purpose.”(Napolitano, 2010, p.iv) In the wake of the September 11th, 2001 attacks our nation has taken upon itself extreme vigilance to ensure the security and defense of the American people. The relationship between homeland security and homeland defense is one that is tightly knit. Each has a very distinct mission set but somewhere along the spectrum they cross over and mutually support each other in the best interest of the nation.

The faster the nation can get back to its day to day operations the more prepared the nation will be. The Department of Homeland should work with the private sector to show them how their profits will be effect if they don’t prepare for an attack and if they were prepared for an attack. Ways that the American public can be prepared is for companies to establish a Disaster Plan, which will show how in the event of a disaster a company will be able to get back on its feet very fast. Getting the American public more prepared will free up government resources to be diverted to higher threat areas.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States, a series of risk management evaluations were created by the US Federal Government to assess the future risks the homeland was going to face. When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was officially created in 2002, more effective risk management assessments were re-designed to evaluate the past and present dangers, prevent them and respond successfully to more terrorist attacks. Since 2001 until 2007, a development of risk assessment has been divided in phases to be able to reach a better formula that would analyze the risk within the homeland security and provide the appropriate fund to homeland security enterprise.

Nearly every community has some sort of community risk, threat, and assessment plan that takes into account one of the six potential risks that are of concern to homeland security. Though each of these plans will likely differ from one another, many communities will have the same types of information in their plans. This essay will look at the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide (THIRA), the Community Risk Reduction Planning Guide, as well as FEMA’s National Preparedness plan. Any combination of these guides are a good starting point for every community in America. At top of every communities list as well as the nation is the protection of the critical infrastructure. Loss of infrastructure regardless of how big or small the community is could have very crippling effects on that community.

The Department of Homeland Security released the 2014 Quadrennial Homeland Security Review on June 18, 2014 as required by the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and its amendments. This review outlined the current state of preparedness, as well as the future areas of concentration. It also determined six strategic challenges facing the nation: terrorist threat; growing cyber threats; biological concerns as a whole; nuclear terrorism; transnational criminal organizations; and natural hazards. The basic building block of emergency management in the U.S. is the local community. Each step begins here. Threat assessments are completed on the local level. Planning, mitigation, and response are all responsibilities of the local community to support the state and Federal practice using the guidance provided by both.