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Information Sharing with Fusion Centers Has Improved, but Information System Challenges Remain
This Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report "addresses the strengths and weaknesses of DHS' information sharing with state and local fusion centers and the implementation of information technology to support these activities. It is based on interviews with employees and officials of relevant agencies and institutions, direct observations, and a review of applicable documents. [...] We reviewed the department's approach to information sharing with state and local fusion centers. Our objectives were to determine (1) the effectiveness of DHS' strategy, processes, and activities for facilitating information sharing with fusion centers; and (2) the extent to which information technology systems support information sharing between the department and these centers. DHS has made progress in its efforts to improve information sharing with fusion centers. Fusion center personnel indicated that information sharing had improved over time and the information received from the department met their needs primarily due to the deployment of DHS intelligence officers to the centers. As a result of improved information sharing, fusion centers have successfully collaborated with the department during numerous large-scale events and maintained situational awareness after attempted terrorist attacks or other incidents. However, DHS component collaboration in the information sharing process needs improvement, and some intelligence products could better meet state and local needs."
United States. Department of Homeland Security. Office of Inspector General
2010-10
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Homeland Defense Equipment Reuse Program
"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Grants and Training (G&T), in coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. Navy (USN), Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), Helping Our Own (HOO), and the Health Physics Society (HPS) is pleased to make available the Homeland Defense Equipment Reuse (HDER) Program. The goal of the HDER Program is to provide excess radiological detection instrumentation and other equipment, as well as training and technical support, to emergency responder agencies nationwide to enhance their domestic preparedness capabilities."
United States. Department of Homeland Security. Office of Grants and Training
2006-06
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High-Rise Office Building Fire, One Meridian Plaza, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (February 23, 1991)
"This report on the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, One Meridian Plaza fire documents one of the most significant high-rise fires in United States' history. The fire claimed the lives of three Philadelphia firefighters and gutted eight floors of a 38-story fire-resistive building causing an estimated $100 million in direct property loss and an equal or greater loss through business interruption. Litigation resulting from the fire amounts to an estimated $4 billion in civil damage claims. Twenty months after the fire this building, one of Philadelphia's tallest, situated on Penn Square directly across from City Hall, still stood unoccupied and fire-scarred, its structural integrity in question. This fire is a large scale realization of fire risks that have been identified on many previous occasions. The most significant new information from this fire relates to the vulnerability of the systems that were installed to provide electrical power and to support fire suppression efforts. In this incident there was an early loss of normal electrical power, a failure of the emergency generator and a major problem with the standpipe system, each of which contributed to the final outcome. These experiences should cause responsible individuals and agencies to critically reexamine the adequacy of all emergency systems in major buildings."
United States Fire Administration
Routley, J. Gordon; Jennings, Charles; Chubb, Mark
1999
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Unclassified Executive Summary of the Committee Report on the Attempted Terrorist Attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253
The report begins with background on the event, "on December 25, 2009, a 23 year-old Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (hereafter Abdulmutallab) attempted to detonate a concealed nonmetallic device containing the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, Michigan, as the plane was descending into Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport." […]. In the report the committee offers their findings, conclusions and recommendations, "the Committee found there were systemic failures across the Intelligence Community (IC), which contributed to the failure to identify the threat posed by Abdulmutallab. Specifically, the NCTC was not organized adequately to fulfill its missions. Following 9/11, Congress created the NCTC and charged it with serving as 'the primary organization in the United States Government for analyzing and integrating all intelligence possessed or acquired by the United States Government pertaining to terrorism and counterterrorism . ... ' In practice, however, the Committee found that no one agency saw itself as being responsible for tracking and identifying all terrorism threats. In addition, technology across the IC is not adequate to provide search enhancing tools for analysts, which contributed to the failure of the IC to identify Abdulmutallab as a potential threat."
United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Intelligence
2010-05-18
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Landfill Fires: Their Magnitude, Characteristics, and Mitigation
"Landfills can be controversial in and of themselves. Homeowners and business owners tend not to support the siting and development of landfills in their neighborhoods due to perceived notions about noxious fumes, health and environmental effects, and adverse influences on property values. Fires occurring in landfill sites are an ongoing, complex problem that has existed for decades. Although relatively uncommon, fires in landfills generally receive substantial media attention and have the potential to become politically damaging events. Landfill fires threaten the environment through toxic pollutants emitted into the air, water, and soil. Landfill fires are particularly challenging to the fire service. A large landfill fire normally requires numerous personnel and a significant period of time before it is contained. Both of these circumstances can strain a jurisdiction, particularly one dependent on volunteer staffing. Landfill operators, members of the fire service, and community residents need to learn as much as possible from past experience to prevent and mitigate future landfill fires."
United States Fire Administration; United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency
2002-05
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Exercise Evaluation Guide: Mass Search and Rescue Operations
This template provided by the Department of Homeland Security serves as a guide for evaluation full-scale exercises on the core capability of Mass Search and Rescue Operations.
United States. Department of Homeland Security
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Bioterrorism Bulletin: Policy and Operational Guidance from the Bureau of Justice Assistance [February 2004]
This February 2004 issue of the Bioterrorism Bulletin contains the following articles: "CDC Local Centers for Public Health Preparedness: Resources for Local Law Enforcement in Bioterrorism Planning, Prevention, and Response"; "Forensic Science and Homeland Security: A Missing Component to a Complex Problem"; "Police and Public Health: Moving Toward Collaboration"; "Paper Examines Key Quarantine Issues for Law Enforcement Executives"; "'First Responder Treatment and Resource Guide' Spells Out Prevention and Mitigation Steps to Protect Emergency Staff"; and "DoD National Defense University: A Resource for Homeland Security Preparedness".
United States. Bureau of Justice Assistance
2004-02
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LLIS Good Story: Mather Lifeways' 'PREPARE' Training Program for Healthcare Workers
"Mather LifeWays' 'PREPARE' program trains senior-living and long-term care (LTC)
professionals to address the medical and psychosocial needs of elderly residents affected by
emergency situations. It also gives trainees the skills to train other members of their
organizations."
Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS); United States. Department of Homeland Security
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EMR-ISAC: InfoGram 19-07 [May 17, 2007]
The Emergency Management and Response Information Sharing and Analysis Center's (EMR-ISAC) InfoGram is a weekly publication of information concerning the protection of critical infrastructures relevant to members of the Emergency Services Sector. This issue includes the following articles: "First Responder Resilience"; "Hurricane Preparedness for Responder Family Members"; "First Responder Hot Weather Preparedness"; and "Third Annual Safety Stand Down".
Emergency Management and Response-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (U.S.)
2007-05-17
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Delaware River Deepening Project: Comprehensive Reanalysis Corrected Errors, but Several Issues Still Need to Be Addressed, Report to the Chairman, Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, U.S. Senate
"The Delaware River deepening project calls for dredging the river's main navigation ship channel to 45 feet, from a depth of 40 feet, beginning at the mouth of the Delaware Bay through Philadelphia Harbor, and to the Beckett Street Terminal in Camden, New Jersey--a distance of 102.5 miles. The Corps plans to use nine existing federal disposal sites in Delaware (one), New Jersey (seven), and Pennsylvania (one) to dispose of the material dredged from the bottom of the river. The new dredged material is to be layered on top of the material already deposited at these sites during annual maintenance dredging in the channel to maintain its 40-foot depth. Additionally, a portion of the material to be dredged is sand from Delaware Bay, which would be used by the Corps to restore wetlands at Kelly Island, Delaware, and the shoreline at Broadkill Beach, Delaware. According to the Corps, dredged material has been used in a variety of beneficial projects over the years, including environmental restoration, landscaping, and airport runway fill material. Often, the material must be drained and dried for several months before it can be used in these ways. Figure 1 shows the area to be dredged, the nine federal disposal sites, the two Delaware restoration locations, and other features discussed in this report."
United States. Government Accountability Office
2010-03
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LLIS Lessons Learned: Lessons Learned from Permanent Housing Construction Operations in Remote Areas
"During rebuilding efforts after severe spring flooding in Central Alaska in 2013, FEMA and state partners overcame significant challenges related to the region's unique operating environment. This document examines logistical, cultural, and coordination lessons learned during the successful Permanent Housing Construction (PHC) operation."
Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS); United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency
2016-03-10
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Compilation of Necessary Elements for a Local Government Continuity of Operations Plan
From the thesis abstract: "National and state homeland security strategies call for continuity of operations plan development. The 2006 Nationwide Plan Review Phase II Report identifies continuity of operations plan development as a state and local goal with a federal goal of providing continuity of operations plan development support. Most local governments do not have a continuity of operation plan or it needs to be updated. Continuity of operations plan guidance is provided by a variety of international, federal, state and local documents. Common, unique and best practice elements are identified and should be contained in a continuity of operations plan. An identified compilation of continuity of operation elements is presented. Planning templates are good for COOP document structure and should contain the compilation of COOP elements, a recommended template is offered. Local government continuity of operations plan developers must independently develop and ‘own' their continuity of operations plan based on the compilation COOP elements. An after action-report is a necessary component for continuity of operations plan maintenance and can be used for continuity of operations plan research. Academia must pursue continuity of operations plan research to qualitatively and quantitatively identify effective continuity of operations plans and their respective elements. With the advent of homeland security as an academic pursuit, research opportunity exists and should be supported by the federal government because of the critical nature of an effective COOP for local government in ensuring the continuity of essential functions during and after an event."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security; Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Cashen, Kevin M.
2006-09
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Biosecurity Checklist for School Foodservice Programs: Developing a Biosecurity Management Plan
"This booklet presents a wide array of guidelines and suggestions on how to: 1) form a school foodservice biosecurity management team, 2) use the checklist to prioritize measures to strengthen biosecurity inside and outside the primary foodservice area, and 3) create a school foodservice biosecurity management plan. Since each school community is unique, you and other school officials will decide which recommendations are possible and make sense for your school. Keeping our Nation's food supply safe from terrorism requires a total team effort, with participation from Federal, State, and local governments working with our country's food and agriculture sectors. At the Federal level, FNS will work with the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other agencies to establish guidance for bolstering the biosecurity of food throughout its journey from farm to table-through transportation, storage, preparation, and service. We hope the guidelines and checklist in this booklet will help you establish a community team and a practical plan to increase food biosecurity in your school."
United States. Department of Agriculture; United States. Food and Nutrition Service
2004-03
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Framework for Evaluating Public Health Surveillance Systems for Early Detection of Outbreaks
"The threat of terrorism and high-profile disease outbreaks has drawn attention to public health surveillance systems for early detection of outbreaks. State and local health departments are enhancing existing surveillance systems and developing new systems to better detect outbreaks through public health surveillance. However, information is limited about the usefulness of surveillance systems for outbreak detection or the best ways to support this function. This report supplements previous guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems. Use of this framework is intended to improve decision-making regarding the implementation of surveillance for outbreak detection. Use of a standardized evaluation methodology, including description of system design and operation, also will enhance the exchange of information regarding methods to improve early detection of outbreaks. The framework directs particular attention to the measurement of timeliness and validity for outbreak detection. The evaluation framework is designed to support assessment and description of all surveillance approaches to early detection, whether through traditional disease reporting, specialized analytic routines for aberration detection, or surveillance using early indicators of disease outbreaks, such as syndromic surveillance."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
Buehler, James W.; Hopkins, Richard S.; Overhage, J. Marc (Joseph Marc), 1957- . . .
2004-05-07
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Medical Examiners, Coroners, and Biologic Terrorism: A Guidebook for Surveillance and Case Management
The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) Series is prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). [It] is the agency's primary vehicle for scientific publication of timely, reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective, and useful public health information and recommendations. This issue of MMWR discusses "Medical examiners, Coroners, and Biologic Terrorism: A Guidebook for Surveillance and Case Management". From the Summary: "Medical examiners and coroners (ME/Cs) are essential public health partners for terrorism preparedness and response. These medicolegal investigators support both public health and public safety functions and investigate deaths that are sudden, suspicious, violent, unattended, and unexplained. Medicolegal autopsies are essential for making organism-specific diagnoses in deaths caused by biologic terrorism. This report has been created to 1) help public health officials understand the role of ME/Cs in biologic terrorism surveillance and response efforts and 2) provide ME/Cs with the detailed information required to build capacity for biologic terrorism preparedness in a public health context. This report provides background information regarding biologic terrorism, possible biologic agents, and the consequent clinicopathologic diseases, autopsy procedures, and diagnostic tests as well as a description of biosafety risks and standards for autopsy precautions."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
2004-06-11
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Framework for Justice Information Sharing: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) [September 28, 2004]
"The purpose of this report is to describe the recommendation of the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) Advisory Committee (GAC) for the design and development of an information system architecture that will support both the operational requirements of justice agencies and the requirements for a national system for information sharing among the justice community. It is intended for the manager and policymaker who are responsible for providing the leadership, resources, and management of the justice community. Technologists are already addressing the questions of design, software, and hardware. The more important issues of how service-oriented architecture (SOA) will serve the business concerns of the justice community must still be confronted. Only the police, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, court managers, probation officers, corrections officers, and their cohorts in relevant fields, who are responsible for leading and managing their agencies, can resolve these issues. It is to them we commend this report."
United States. Office of Justice Programs
2004-09-28
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Effects of Nuclear Weapons, Third Edition
"Since the last version of 'The Effects of Nuclear Weapons' was prepared, much new information has become available concerning nuclear weapons effects. This has come in part from the series of atmospheric tests, including several at very high altitudes, conducted in the Pacific Ocean area in 1962. In addition, laboratory studies, theoretical calculations, and computer simulations have provided a better understanding of the various effects. Within the limits imposed by security requirements, the new information has been incorporated in the present edition. In particular, attention may be called to a new chapter on the electromagnetic pulse. [...] It is because of these fundamental differences between a nuclear and a conventional explosion, including the tremendously greater power of the former, that the effects of nuclear weapons require special consideration. In this connection, a knowledge and understanding of the mechanical and the various radiation phenomena associated with a nuclear explosion are of vital importance. The purpose of this book is to describe the different forms in which the energy of a nuclear explosion are released, to explain how they are propagated, and to show how they may affect people (and other living organisms) and materials."
United States. Department of Defense
Glasstone, Samuel; Dolan, Philip J.
1977
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Overview of the Arkstorm Scenario
Prepared for the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Multihazards Demonstration Project [MHDP]. From the Abstract: "This document summarizes the next major public project for MHDP, a winter storm scenario called ARkStorm (for Atmospheric River 1,000). Experts have designed a large, scientifically realistic meteorological event followed by an examination of the secondary hazards (for example, landslides and flooding), physical damages to the built environment, and social and economic consequences. The hypothetical storm depicted here would strike the U.S. West Coast and be similar to the intense California winter storms of 1861 and 1862 that left the central valley of California impassible. The storm is estimated to produce precipitation that in many places exceeds levels only experienced on average once every 500 to 1,000 years."
Geological Survey (U.S.); United States. Department of the Interior
Topping, Ken; Thomas, Pete; Tang, Alex . . .
2011
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Does Homeland Security Exist Outside the United States?
From the journal's abstract for this article: "Nadav Morag contends, 'Homeland security is a uniquely American concept. It is a product of American geographic isolation and the strong tendency throughout American history to believe that there was a clear divide between events, issues and problems outside US borders and those inside US borders.' In answering the question, 'Does Homeland Security Exist Outside the United States?' he examines how other countries have organized their security policies, strategies, and plans."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Morag, Nadav, 1965-
2011-09
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Homeland Security Education: A Way Forward
"While there is nothing particularly wrong with proceeding forward into the uncertain future of homeland security education, much of the movement has been without directional evidence and debates as to direction have generated more heat than light. We conducted research to help us determine trajectory based on evidence. This research produced findings informed by three groups of homeland security professionals. One group, consisting of 382 respondents, represented homeland security leaders and administrators graduating from the master of arts program at the Naval Postgraduate School. The second group consisted of faculty teaching in that graduate program. The third group was a subject matter expert panel of national leaders in homeland security. Surveys were conducted across these groups, asking that they score the importance of objectives and capabilities associated with the multitude of disciplines comprising homeland security. We found that strategic collaboration, critical thinking and decision-making, foundations of homeland security, and analytical capabilities are the most important attributes of a graduate program dedicated to homeland security. Cognate or specific knowledge, the category frequently argued about in the literature, was scored as the least important category for graduate education. These capabilities and attributes represent a 'way forward' that is research and evidence-based, but questions remain."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Pelfrey, William V.; Kelley, William D.
2013-02
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Evacuation and Sheltering of People with Medical Dependencies - Knowledge Gaps and Barriers to National Preparedness
"Emergency plans are mandated by a number of federal regulations, often with conflicting definitions, to incorporate people with medical dependencies. However targeted planning for this segment is presently hampered by substantial knowledge deficits defining this population and the potential resource requirements in a disaster. These gaps prevent the development of evidence-based best practices for locating, communicating with, transporting, sheltering, and ensuring the safe recovery of those with medical dependencies. The authors discuss the knowledge gaps in preparing for this population and propose solutions to fill these gaps in order to facilitate enhanced preparedness for people with medical dependencies."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Risoe, Petter; Schlegelmilch, Jeffrey; Paturas, James
2013-02
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Operational Epidemiological Modeling: A Proposed National Process
"To support the successful integration of civilian and military domestic disaster medical response, the Yale New Haven Center for Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response (YNH-CEPDR) and US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) have established the National Center for Integrated Civilian-Military Domestic Disaster Medical Response (ICMDDMR). As part of the ICMDDMR, YNH-CEPDR has conducted research to determine the requirements of a national operational epidemiological modeling process to integrate modelers with operational decision makers during an infectious disease event of national significance. This article presents a proposed process that is based on research and consultation with a workgroup of interagency and organizational stakeholders."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Lenart, Brienne; Schlegelmilch, Jeffrey; Bergonzi-King, Linda . . .
2013-02
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Homeland Security Affairs: IEEE 2012 Conference on Technology for Homeland Security - Best Papers
This supplement of Homeland Security Affairs includes the following five papers: "A Compressed Sensing Approach for Detection of Explosive Threats at Standoff Distances using a Passive Array of Scatterers"; "Return-Oriented Vulnerabilities in ARM Executables"; "Security and Performance Analysis of Passenger Screening for Mass-transit"; "Intelligent Radiation Sensor System (IRSS) Advanced Technology Demonstrator (ATD)"; and "A Video-based Hyper-focal Imaging Method for Iris Recognition in the Visible Spectrum."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
2013-04
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Unified Command and the State-Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi
"Unified Command, as a part of the National Incident Management System (NIMS), was successfully used in the state-federal response to the catastrophic disaster caused by Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi in 2005. Four elements to determine the members of a Unified Command include: authority, co-location, parity and common understanding. Modifications made to ICS in the Mississippi response include extending the unified command concept down the chain to facilitate joint decision-making at all levels. Unresolved issues include the role of the Federal Coordinating Officer and Principal Federal Official, federal management of multi-state disasters, and the inclusion of components of the Department of Defense in a Unified Command."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Carwile, William L., III
2005
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Homeland Insecurity: Thinking about CBRN Terrorism
"As the U.S. government has seen a change of administrations, there is an opportunity for a constructive review of how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has addressed the threat of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorism in terms of policy development and execution to date. Our current homeland security approach to CBRN terrorism seems to have its basis in the incidents of 9/11 and the U.S. anthrax attacks in October-November 2001. However, our history of homeland defense goes back to 1941 (at least); to understand from a policy perspective how the government ought to address domestic CBRN terrorism, we need to put it all in context. This essay examines the issues of how DHS has prepared for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terrorism incidents. DHS should address these threats in a consistent and holistic manner, but instead the federal government has developed singular hazard-based approaches to each threat. DHS has not assessed its efforts to address CBRN terrorism or identified where DHS could improve, and as a result we see merely the continuation of previous initiatives. The essay concludes with some recommendations on how DHS could improve this area with better policy practices."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Mauroni, Albert J., 1962-
2010-09
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More is Better: The Analytic Case for a Robust Suspicious Activity Reports Program
"In his March 2009 testimony, Gregory Nojeim warned Congress of the potential danger to civil liberties posed by the government's suspicious activity report (SAR) program. But Nojeim, director of the Project on Freedom, Security, & Technology, raised another concern -- that 'the security 'bang per byte' of information gathered may be diminishing. While 'stove piping' was yesterday's problem, tomorrow's problem may be 'pipe clogging,' as huge amounts of information are being gathered without apparent focus.' [...]. A subsequent CRS [Congressional Research Service] study, in November 2009, endorsed Nojeim's suggestion questioning the need for a data-intensive program and made a similar recommendation: 'Congress may be interested in how a future SAR Program Management Office intends to address this problem -- specifically, which agency or agencies will be responsible for quality control of SARs [sic] to prevent system overload from irrelevant or redundant ones.' This article acknowledges the progress made in protecting civil rights -- an area of legitimate concern -- but rejects categorically the call to reduce or limit the size of the SAR program. Two analytic requirements for the collection of more rather than less information through the SAR process are presented, to increase the probability of identifying pre-operational terrorist activity and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of critical infrastructure protection regimes. In statistical analysis, more is better."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Steiner, James E.
2010-09
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Twitter, Facebook, and Ten Red Balloons: Social Network Problem Solving and Homeland Security
"This essay, the winner of the Center for Homeland Defense and Security (CHDS) Essay Contest in 2010, looks at how homeland security could benefit from crowd-sourced applications accessed through social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. Christopher M. Ford looks at the apparent efficacy of two such endeavors: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) competition to find ten 8-foot balloons moored across the continental U.S. and Wired Magazine challenge to "find" author Evan Ratliff. Based on these and other crowd-sourced applications, Ford suggests that the U.S. government could utilize the internet and social networking sites to potentially solve an array of discrete problems through the active participation of interested citizens"
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Ford, Christopher M.
2011-02
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Threat-based Response Patterns for Emergency Services: Developing Operational Plans, Policies, Leadership, and Procedures for a Terrorist Environment
"The purpose of this article is to consider how a number of operational and administrative skills and abilities, familiar to emergency services but not necessarily suited to meeting the current terrorist condition, should be re-examined and corrected. This article will demonstrate how those familiar elements are not isolated, independent issues, but are in fact parts of a continuum of the same problem (the threat) that must be addressed comprehensively to meet the requirements of, and to operate in, this new terrorist war-fighting environment."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Mahoney, Robert T.
2010-09
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Building Resilient Communities: A Preliminary Framework for Assessment
"This article moves beyond debating definitions of resilience, towards the development of a preliminary conceptual framework for assessing community resilience. We recognize that not all frameworks are created equal, nor do they satisfy all constituent audiences. The proposed framework presented herein is consistent with Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom's stated purpose of a framework: to 'identify the elements (and the relationships among these elements)...to consider for analysis...organize diagnostic and prescriptive inquiry...[and] provide the most general set of variables that should be used to analyze all types of settings relevant for the framework.' It does not outline a cookie-cutter solution for all communities to apply, but rather an approach that allows community leaders and policymakers to begin to think about resilience as it pertains to their own community's unique circumstances. While sacrificing operational specifics in the interim, it summarizes the core attributes of resilient systems (resource performance, resource diversity, resource redundancy, institutional memory, innovative learning, and connectedness) in the context of five key community subsystems (ecological, economic, physical infrastructure, civil society, and governance). Through the examination of each community subsystem, a preliminary, community-based, resilience assessment framework is proposed for continued development and refinement. In leading up to this conceptual framework, however, the article presents the definition of resilience used here, an argument for a community-based approach, and a description of what we believe the research shows are the core attributes of resilience within community systems."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Longstaff, P. H.; Armstrong, Nicholas J.; Perrin, Keli
2010-09
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Exploring the Relationship between Homeland Security Information Sharing & Local Emergency Preparedness
"Information sharing among federal, state, and local agencies is a critical element of U.S. homeland security strategy. Few researchers, however, have examined the relationship between the use of homeland security information-sharing systems and perceived levels of emergency preparedness at the local level (city, county, and region). In order to explore this relationship, an online survey was administered to eighty-three registered users of Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS.gov) - a U.S. Department of Homeland Security information sharing system - and interviews were conducted with ten LLIS.gov users located in different regions of the country. This study finds that the concepts of information sharing and preparedness accommodate multiple - and at times conflicting - meanings and practices. As a result, the government's effort to create a 'trusted partnership' and a 'culture of information sharing' among federal, state, and local agencies faces significant challenges."
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.). Center for Homeland Defense and Security
Bean, Hamilton
2009-05
