Laredo Security Scenario

The city had learned from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and had done contingency planning in the event of another similar terrorist attack. It established a state of the art Emergency Operations Center. It was evident that training was provided to all departments and officials as to what the priority would be in the case of a disaster, which is public safety. The first thing that was done was to seal off the area to allow first responders to respond quickly and evacuate the public from the area. Even in the absence of communication with the Emergency Operations Center, department heads and key ranking personnel knew exactly what the priority was and acted accordingly. The city’s preparedness left little room for doubt as to who was in charge, with that being said, state and federal agencies were mainly in the role of supporting the city in the efforts of evacuating, rescue and recovery. The leadership provided by the mayor calmed the already shocked public and reassured them of their safety. “The three steps of crisis management are prevention, preparation and containment” (Starling, 2008, p.222). The city itself could not have done much about preventing the situation, but the city’s preparation was evident by their public administrator’s and employee’s quick decisive response. The containment was also accomplished by the city action of closing off the area and

My current position as an Area Commander for the Federal Protective Service (FPS) is not without its challenges. I am responsible for supervising eleven federal law enforcement officers to include two K9 units and approximately forty-five contracted protective security officers. As a team we address security related issues on a daily basis. Our position description encompasses two major disciplines; the first is federal law enforcement and the second physical security. Both occupations can be viewed as one, yet separate in their ever changing complexity of development. The greatest challenges are staying up with the constant progression of technical advances in the way each vital role is implemented. Combining two occupations into one job description can at times be overwhelming.

As stated earlier, the 9/11 attacks revealed the indomitable spirit of the US and awakened a sleeping giant, which was very reminiscent of the US response following the attacks by the Japanese on US forces in Hawaii. Both 9/11 and Pearl Harbor attacks galvanized the American people into action and caused the government to heavily invest resources to combat enemies of the US; the Axis enemies during World War II and “the terrorists”, wherever they may be located, following 9/11. One of the first NIST deficiencies to be corrected were the operational protocols for intra- and inter-agency communication. This, in part, has been addressed in the Incident Command System (ICS) since the purpose of ICS is to integrate operations between public safety entities at all levels of government.

The homeland security mission and goals face many roadblocks and challenges in today’s world. The Quadrennial Homeland Security Review lists six strategic challenges which the Department of Homeland Security feels are of exceptional concern to the nation. Of these outlined challenges I believe that transnational criminal organizations

The border between Texas and Mexico encompasses 1241 miles from El Paso to the Rio Grande Valley. Border security is an issue that must be currently addressed by Texas legislature, as Texas is one of the states along the U.S Mexico border that experience tremendous amounts of illegal immigrants and criminals whose intentions are to provoke havoc through drugs and weapons smuggling onto the U.S.

One of the main goals of the incident command system (ICS) is to manage resources on the fire grounds. The Incident Command System has a built-in accountability system. Proper management of fire ground operations is necessary to achieve and maintain accountability. Accountability through incident command is possible only if it is established from the very beginning of the incident with the arrival of the first unit, officer, or member who establishes command and begins to assign and track incoming resources. Resources that self-deploy on the fire ground without the establishment and direction of an overall IC are not operating within incident command, a single incident action plan (IAP), or an accountability system. Any organization that waits for a later arriving officer to show up, establish command, and then attempt to locate and track multiple self-deployed resources from scratch is setting that officer and the organization up for failure and, ultimately, a tragic disaster. Accountability through

Often times, the quality of an organization’s low level employees are a reflection of the leadership at the top of that organization. Bearing this fact in mind, it is important for a complete homeland security assessment to take a long hard look at the leadership of the organization (Fisher, 2004). Tasked with determining the goals and direction of an organization, the leadership will ultimately determine an organization’s homeland security response, and manage its execution. Key areas to examine within an organization’s leadership include

Address, in-depth, how one of the crises in the text have influenced the U.S. emergency response programs and/or mutual aid agreements. The April of 2007 Virginia Tech shooting highlighted “the need for many diverse organizations to have a common incident command structure as a framework for an organized response” (Miller & Rivera, pg. 11); more specifically, the situation called for a unified command in order to better manage the incident. A unified command is created when the incident commander from each agency involved in the incident join together to provide one authoritative incident command body. According to the Virginia Tech Review Panel Report: Mass Shootings at Virginia Tech, “a unified command structure could have led to less confusion,

The Los Zetas is a Mexican transnational criminal organization specializing in drug and human trafficking that has extended across the Texas and Arizona borders with recent expansion in the South and Midwest. They are a paramilitary group specializing in violent behavior that has crossed the Mexican/American border to include recruitment of United States young citizens. Because it is not a matter of when the Zetas will breach our border areas, but how forcefully and repeatedly, a Red Cell analysis is imperative to understand their criminal mindset and predict their imminent and future intentions. Penetration beyond our borders has already occurred not only with the shipment of drugs, but also by way of attacks on U.S. law enforcement and recruitment of U.S. youth to carry out their dirty work within the U.S. borders.

Candidate Cowart demonstrated a superior ability to command and think on his feet during the problem. Despite the content of his order being only average, SNC’s confidence and posture overcame this shortfall allowing his fire team to effectively and efficiently execute the mission. This was demonstrated when one of his fire team members asked a question prior to execution that SNC was able to promptly and adequately answer in order to quickly transition to execution. Candidate Cowart consistently directed his fire team by helping them overcome points of friction expeditiously. He positioned himself in order to clearly supervise his fire team’s performance and kept them motivated with encouragement and praise as appropriate. SNC’s demeanor

Proper security was put into place and areas where secured so that the enemy could not advance into the FOB further possibly causing more damage or hurting more Soldiers. As Leaders we have the responsibility to take charge in stressful situations and we will be looked to by our Soldiers for guidance and direction. We must be ready to act when called upon and though it may be hard at times and the decisions we may be faced with will be hard to make we still need to be ready for whenever that situation

I was selected to attend Special Agent’s class for the National Security Agency in October of 2013. Thousands of individuals apply for this opportunity and I was one of approximately thirty people to be selected to begin a career in public service. This was the first major accomplishment in my professional career with many more to take place and hopefully many more to come. After a period of time conducting personnel security investigations, I was selected for a highly sought after position in the Security Operations Command Center (SOCC). The SOCC is a twenty-four hour watch floor responsible for the protection of the Agency’s people, facilities, and information. While working as a Security Duty Officer (SDO) in the SOCC, I respond to medical emergencies, security and law enforcement

The purpose of this paper is to define and give as much detail information about Homeland Security in the United States and law enforcement and how they are integrated. I hope after reading this paper you will be well informed on the duties and responsibilities of these agencies. People have always lived in fear but with the help of these agencies we will no longer have to live in fear. I will try to give as much detail information as possible to help with any problems or situation that might come up. Homeland Security in the United States and law enforcement have extensive research skills and knowledge in serving and protecting citizens and other important groups and agencies. Homeland

It demonstrated that these problems were not geographically confined and that the targets of the terrorist’s discontent can include innocent bystanders. The failed rescue, that resulted in the death of all the hostages, helped identify significant deficiencies in security tactics, techniques, and procedures used during hostage events and highlighted several specific issues in Germanys response force that ultimately lead to the death of the hostages due to miscommunication and lack of proper training in extreme

2. Situational Assessment. Once the Incident Commander arrives on the scene, s/he will need to assess the emergency quickly. Is there still a threat to the general population? Are the casualties identified or does Search & Rescue need to be mobilized? The IC needs to come up with a game plan to save lives, protect property and the environment, meet basic human needs, and stabilize the situation. 5