Homeland Security Assessment Process Analysis

Understanding Homeland Security’s (HS) mission, tasks, duties, responsibilities, and operations is important. It is important because providing security is necessary to protect this country. HS can have different meaning and is a topic of debate for many scholars who try and define HS. This is not a debate or the focus, and HS needs to be a team effort by all Americans to keep this nation free (Bellavita, 2008). One thing for sure is that terrorism needs to be checked on a daily basis. Many agencies work together providing security to prevent terrorist attacks to the homeland. According to Bellavita (2008), federal, state and local governments, by the private sector, and by individuals all have a homeland role in preventing terrorist attacks within the United States. Additionally, providing security is challenging because America has a surrounding ocean from east to west, and to the south. Also, Canada is to the north and the borders span a numerous amount of miles. Where would HS’s mission fall when all these borders need protection? One mission for HS is to provide necessary resources to protect and prevent terrorist attacks. When resources are determined, other federal agencies may get involved to determine how the resources can be utilized to provide security (Cusic, 2009).

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.

The Quadrennial Homeland Security review suggest six strategic challenges that will drive the overall risk to the nation over the next five years. These six risks include: the terrorist threat; growing cyber threats; biological concerns; nuclear terrorism; transnational criminal organizations; and natural hazards (DHS, 2014). The terrorists threat is, arguably, the most publicized and popular of the six risks the DHS lists. The particular risk is unique in the fact that although it can be planned for and mitigated against by state and local governments, it is primarily a federal responsibility, or at least perceived so by most entities. The DHS itself was established due to the events of September 11th 2001 and it has since been a consistent

I choose the H.R.595 Homeland Security: Mail Initiative Act sponsored by California Representative Jackie Speier.This bill was just introduced to the house in late May of 2017 and has not been passed yet. It calls for an option under the Secure Mail Initiative to give a sender the opportunity to select for the United States Postal Service to Hold for Pickup or a signature confirmation from the receiver. This bill has been requested to give the sender more direct say in how they wish their package to be delivered.

a poor interpretation, information wasn’t being shared. This made it almost impossible to connect the dots when investigating suspicious groups or people (Chertoff, 2014).

Fisher (2004) divides the Homeland Security Assessment into eight easy to follow steps that must be followed in order to ensure an easy understanding and flow. These eight steps include complete the organizational overview, read Baldrige criteria, review questions, zero-based and world class, make interview notes, list comments for strengths and improvement, list homeland security strategic planning issues, and score assessment items (Fisher, 2004).

The United States Department of Homeland Security is known as an organization that ensures the safety of society in the nation (Homeland Security). The department primary purpose is to address threats, disasters, or hazards that may terrorize the nation and its borders. The department confronts and resolves conflicts between outside nations and the United States of America. For many years the United States Department of Homeland Security have assigned laws. As well as planned and assumed threatened, susceptible, and vulnerable events that may occur within the United

The question that has been asked; given the amount of money spent on homeland security programs and practices, how should the United States measure the effectiveness of this spending? This question has been answered time and time again by the different agencies that fall underneath the department of Homeland Security. Since the creation of this department, in the shadow of the 9-11 attacks by the Al Qaida terrorist group in the United States, The Department of Homeland Security has stopped numerous attacks from occurring, seized countless amounts of contraband (drugs, weapons, forged currency, illegal good and persons) from violating the sovereignty of the United States and therefore protecting the people of this nation and the national

When conducting a homeland security assessment being thorough is of utmost importance. Organizations are multifaceted and as such, require examination in many different areas of day-to-day operations. Homeland security concerns are seemingly innumerable, with new threats emerging almost daily. For an organization to be effectively prepared to deal with these threats, everyone from the highest leadership to entry level employees must be involved in the organization’s homeland security initiatives (Fisher, n.d.). This is true of both public sector entities such as law enforcement agencies, as well as private sector corporations.

In the recent times, a lot of attention has been put into diverting the role of law and leadership enforcement to life and property protection from a large number of external and internal dangers. Homeland security strategy mentions that, on the neighborhood level, data and information gathering, coordination with state and government organizations, foundation insurance, and upgraded advancement of police-group connections will encourage aversion, furthermore, help reaction to potential terrorist attacks. On the other hand, the oddity of ideas under the Homeland Security worldview can be at any rate somewhat followed to the model of community policing (Stewart & Morris, 2009). In reality, it can be securely contended that for policing, homeland security obligations arrived all of a sudden as a solitary substitute to the strength of community policing.

To begin, I choose to do my discussion board on the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. According to the Introduction to Homeland Security, "this office is the primary point of contact with other government agencies at all government levels including federal, state, local, and tribal governments, integrating the work of the department with that of each of these other entities in their national security efforts.

As an agency like Department of Homeland Security or Federal Bureau of Investigation, they make such efforts to assure to protect the homeland and the United States citizens. "Homeland security decision makers should avoid bloated solutions and examine constantly old security measure to avoid petrifaction" (Neito-Gomez, 2011). Department of Homeland Security needs always to stay on top of the game; it is important to have eyes and ears everywhere. Technologies have been taking such a major part in defending security, and that is why Department of Homeland Security needs to have the most updated technologies and Intel to assist for the safety defense.

After the events of September 11th 2001, the United States was left in a weakened state. What had happened? What had gone wrong? What did we miss? These questions are what faced a government scrambling to find a plan to ensure that these events did not have an encore. In the year following September 11th 2001 the United States government came together with selected delegates representing both parties of republicans and democrat and the 9/11 commission was erected. A new standard of security for the homeland had to be met and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security. This brought about the question, what assets to we need to protected and how will we as government fund and protect the security of those assets?

The assessment team administrator should begin the process of soliciting assessment team members. Many organizations solicit members through. Their corporate newsletter, electronic mail, or a personal letter sent from the president/CEO inviting participation. Team members selections should be considered from a group of employees who have expressed an interest in better understanding homeland security and using the Baldrige Criteria as a template for improving their organization’s homeland security infrastructure. Once team members have been selected, it is recommended that an assessment workshop be conducted by the assessment team administrator or team participants who have an understanding of homeland security issues and the Baldrige Criteria. The workshop may include using a case study for the team to practice identifying organizational strengths and opportunities for improvement in at least one or two categories. During the workshop, the team will discuss each category and determine “What does this mean for my organization?” The use of this manual will help the team practice translating homeland security issues and Baldrige Criteria into simple language for their own organization-wide assessment.Assessment team members should represent a cross section of employees. All departments throughout the organization should be represented on the teams. Diversity adds value and strength to each assessment team. In larger organizations, seven homeland security assessment/Baldrige

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has one major goal to keep America Safe. Therefore, the dedicated men and women working at DHS deserve the best environment to execute their roles and responsibilities. A decade has passed; however, low employee morale has not been resolved relegating it to the bottom rank among the large Federal agencies.