Critical Releases in Homeland Security: November 21, 2018

"The 2018 'National Preparedness Report' provides an overview of key developments in national preparedness--incorporating findings and lessons learned from incidents in 2017 in combination with data and inputs from federal interagency and whole community partners. The report evaluates and measures progress in building, sustaining, and delivering five selected core capabilities that have faced emerging and persistent challenges. Refining the scope of the 2018 edition of the report to focus on these challenging elements concentrates the discussion on what the whole community--including individuals, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and all levels of government-- needs to address to increase the Nation's preparedness. The in-depth assessment of the targeted areas provided in this report will be particularly important in the years to come, as the Nation looks to address long-term trends that will influence national preparedness--including rising disaster costs, new technology, an older and more diverse population, and evolving threats such as cybersecurity."

From the Executive Summary: "[T]he U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (Commission) investigated rates of police use of force; questioned whether rates and instantiations of that use of force violate the civil rights of persons of color, persons with disabilities, LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] communities, and low-income persons; and evaluated promising or proven policies and practices worth replicating to minimize unnecessary use of force and the perception and reality of discrimination in police use of force. The Commission held a briefing on April 20, 2015, on police practices and the use of deadly force in the U.S. The panels consisted of community leaders and police reform advocates, law enforcement and court officials, scholars, and legal experts. These experts convened to discuss the longstanding and emergent causes of the recent police-involved fatal shootings of people of color and other disadvantaged populations. Since 2015, several of the Commission's state advisory committees have also investigated police practices, and testimony and findings from their briefings are incorporated throughout the report. No single solution stands out as an immediate fix to the complex problem of police unauthorized use of force."