Importance Of Homeland Security Preparedness Cycles

In the United States, there are city, county, state, and national police forces. They have very difficult and dangerous responsibilities. These public servants are required to perform many different jobs. They enforce laws and maintain order. They teach people how to help prevent crime and to protect themselves ( Mittleman, 2000). They offer assistance and take charge of many different situations such as car accidents, flooding, and hurricanes. Police

The homeland security is a department responsible for developing various mechanisms aimed at ensuring that the country is safe. The main focus of homeland security is to shield or reduce the cases of terror attacks. The prevention and response to both manmade and natural disasters also fall under homeland security (McElreath, Jensen, and Wigginton, 10). The Department of Homeland Security, therefore, has a broad range of responsibilities. At its formation in 2003, the department was composed of twenty-two federal agencies with over 180,000 employees. Homeland security’s formation was necessitated by the September 11th attacks in United States. Today, the Department of Homeland Security

The various local, state, and federal emergency management systems of the United States suffered a crude awakening in the decade of the 2000s. Systems expected to hold up were put to the test and failed to prepare for disaster, mitigate the damage, and, in some instances, actually hampered responses in life-or-death situations. Worse, all failings were highlighted in an age of global communication and mass media, on display first whether a man-made incident like September 11th attacks or natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina. The decade found the complacent government failing to maintain modern emergency management practices, stimulating began a series of doctrinal upgrades and training improvements. Yet, no matter the bureaucracy, writings, or money thrown at a problem, the first responder to the incident has and will continue to influence the outcome. While the individual responder stands as the most important part of

Local protective measure planning equips first responders with the knowledge needed to organize efficient response results in the event of an emergency. Structured open dialogue between local emergency jurisdictions enables responders to delegate the appropriate individuals and equipment resources to the impacted local areas requiring the most aid following a terror event. By establishing a streamlined communication framework, local emergency responders can collaborate their efforts and resources to promote collective well-being. When a local emergency plan specifies what responders and resources belong where and at what time, response overlap and shortages can be avoided. Unionized response action established prior to a terrorist incident, serves to mitigate the risks, hazards and threat of injury or harm the people and property of the US face when a terrorism event occurs. Furthermore, a structured local emergency operations plan for a hazardous materials incident involving a terrorist is imperative to public health and safety, as the blueprint outlines protective measures the public can follow to minimize their exposure to dangerous substances. The people of a community affected by a terror event can be warned and notified of the event’s associated dangerous materials, which threaten their well-being, through a variety of methods such as warning sirens or horns, emergency alert systems, automated

After the 9/11 attack, many agencies didn 't know what to do with the situation of the towers been blown up by airplanes and that terrorism was the cause of it, that 's why President Bush created a new defense called Homeland Security to prevent that from happening again. He had to arrange everything in the Criminal Justice system to place it together, but in order for everything to go out smoothly federal agencies will need the help of local law enforcement because they will be the first responders on the crime scene when something bad happens. Local law enforcement usually have it concerns with preventing or solving crimes such as burglary, theft, robbery, and homicide crimes, these crimes usually have an impact on the local community,

This program is the Department of Homeland Security’s final priority to “plan, train, and equip police, fire, and paramedics to react successfully to terrorism; and promotes recovery with the assistance of disaster specialists.” (Homeland Security, 2015) One of the examples of disaster specialists that help assist in disasters like Hurricane Katrina is the Federal Emergency Management Agency also known as FEMA. FEMA helps communities with reducing their risk, helps its different agency officials prepare for all types of hazards, and also helps people in communities get back on their

Before 9/11, law enforcement possessed the primary responsibility for combating terrorism in the United States. Law enforcement relationships and responsibilities have continued to be evaluated and redefined at all levels of government. They will evolve because of the continuous changing nature of terrorist threats, prevention needs and transforming operations and strategies. Terrorist groups continue to advance and pose threats in new ways each day. In the fourteen years since the worst terrorist attack on United States territory, citizens have undoubtedly become more cautious and accustomed to the inconveniences that result from the precautions and added security law enforcement agencies are now having to provide.

In other words, local law enforcement officials are usually the first line of defense against potential terrorists as they are more likely to come into contact with each other rather than with federal law enforcement agencies. Therefore, police officers are amongst some of the most important and vital personnel this country has when preventing terrorism on American territory. He also articulated that his description of how local law enforcement contributes to homeland security is not mutually exclusive to terrorism. Local law enforcement officials also field the burden in trying to evacuate a city before a natural disaster occurs and calming or redirecting the general public during a state

Not one entity should or can claim sole accountability for the multifaceted range of challenges related with disasters and emergencies like active shooters. Public health nurses team up with other experts, such as laboratory workers environmentalists, physicians, epidemiologists and social workers during times of emergency. In the scenario of an active shooter the public health nurse, is to work together with other emergency workers to improve the emergency response, which include but is not limited to, officers, Federal agents, hospital security and ambulance workers. According to the Department of Homeland Security, every public health nurse should be able to locate and be familiar with the contents of the emergency response plan before an emergency occurs (US Department of Homeland Security, 2006). Chain of command is also important during the times of crisis. “Each public health nurse needs to be familiar with and be able to describe the lines of authority and communication in emergency response, a command chain that is based on the Incident Command System” (OSHA, 2001) Even though public health nurses can work in many competences, they are more likely to be functioning in the role of the “operations section” because they bring

The Department of Homeland Security supplies a national protection plan concerning critical infrastructure security. This plan targets a wide audience, including public and private critical infrastructure owners and administrators. Managing risks through identifying, deterring, and disrupting threats to critical infrastructure is the direct focus of this plan. The ability of an organization to reduce the impact of a threat that has occurred and reducing the impact of one that may occur is essential to an active security posture. Compromise of a critical infrastructure such as oil, airports, or traffic flow management could result in a major loss of life or resources (Department of Homeland Security, 2013).

The 9/11 attacks has changed how law enforcement response to terrorist attacks. Prior to 9/11 law enforcement were a bunch of entities that acted independently of each other. One of the major things that were affected during 9/11 was the communication and this hit to our communication infrastructure crippling how law enforcement, EMS and FDNY passed information. This attack changed how law enforcement responded to any terrorist attacks. After the terrorist attack law enforcement created a domestic counterterrorism unit to handle moments of disaster and terrorist attacks. These units worked in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies; the sharing of information is all funneled into one system called the Nationwide Suspicious Activity

According to American Police Beat, “the average response time for an emergency call is 10 minutes” (Women 's Self Defense Institute, 2014). When you think of the amount of time ten minutes actually is, you realize that that response time is not adequate. When it came to catastrophic situations like the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the elementary school shooting at Sandy Hook, the police weren’t as quick as they strived to be. After the first bombing at the World Trade Center occurred, New York City decided to set up an emergency management center, that way the police department and other first responders were able to communicate and join forces in case this type of situation were to happen again. However, this was not as successful as they had hoped when 9/11 happened. After 9/11 and other tragedies like it, the police have been trying to learn from their mistakes as much as possible that way they have a better outcome when problems like this arise again in the future. Police are continuing to train to make their response time quicker, to ensure police readiness and to strategize with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to make the outcome better. One situation that law enforcement put their training and knowledge to the test was at the Boston Marathon bombings. The Boston Marathon took place on April 15, 2013 in Boston, Massachusetts. A few hours after the first people crossed the finish line, the first

As the Disaster Coordinator for the city I am responsible for ensuring the public safety and welfare of the citizens within the city's jurisdiction. This requires me to have a full understanding on my role and responsibilities for managing disaster response and employing resources in order to save lives, protect property, the environment. Additionally I’m tasked to preserve the less tangible but equally important social, economic and political structures. My first reaction was to alert the regional Joint Terrorism Task Force to prepare them for possible activation. Next it is vital to gain situational awareness and develop a Common Operating Picture (COP). This COP is the who, what, where, when and how as it relates to the incident. Situational awareness starts at the incident site and includes continuous monitoring of reporting channels to gain

The domestic preparedness cycle has four categories which are prevention, protection, response, and recovery. The first category of the preparedness cycle is prevention which applies to terrorism and transnational crime, whereas, terrorism and crime are intentional acts committed by people, it is well within reason to hope to prevent some of those acts from occurring (Cordner, 2016). In the USA PATRIOT Act, was written and designed to prevent and/or deter terror acts from occurring, additionally, in part one, this section gives investigators the tools and abilities to better combat terrorism (USA PATRIOT Act, 2001). As for protection, it is related to prevention but focuses on more specific facilities, locations, and system with the intent

The risk management plays an important role within the Homeland Security enterprise, because can help to organize the tasks and prepare better each organization to respond effectively in the event of terrorist attack or natural disaster (CRS 2007). Since the 9/11 terror attacks, preparation and response to terrorist attacks has changed thanks to the federal government’s attitude to distributing funds to states and local governments (CRS 2007). To better comprehend the current approach to each phase of the grant program development, it’s important to understand its origin (CRS 2007). While the nation was begin to understand the importance of homeland security, the development of the grant program and the risk management methodologies was happening at the same time (CRS