Strengths And Weaknesses Of Department Of Homeland Security - Research Paper Example

Strengths And Weaknesses Of Department Of Homeland Security Introduction In ensuring the safety of the United States, its people and dignity of the land, various organs have been set up by the government to serve these purposes. Department of Homeland Security as an establishment by the United States government and set up after the September 11 attack on the United States was aimed at providing homeland security to the country. This Department is simply a cabinet department under the Federal Government and is highly funded by the government through the annual budget. The department holds the primary responsibility of protecting both the United States and its protectorates from various incidences such as terrorist attacks, artificial and intended accidents as well as natural disasters. Due to the huge mandate bestowed upon the DHS, it has to ensure vigilance at all times and act as an internal security watchdog for the United States. In this paper, I will explore the main reasons why this department was created, the obligations and responsibilities of the department, its strengths and weaknesses as well as budgetary considerations. Moreover, I will focus on whether this department has lived to its mandate so far or not. Purpose for Creating the DHS The September 11 attack on the United States was one of the worst incidences to befall America in the recent history. To date, the extent of its damage and effects among the people are being felt. This shows the magnitude of the man-made calamity that was staged against the people of United States. In response to this attack and as a way of stopping any future incidences from occurring the government of George w. bush announced the establishment of an office of homeland security whose mandate (OHS). Not again did the government want to be caught unawares. Thus, this department was given the responsibility of coordinating efforts of the homeland security. By then, the office was headed by Tom Ridge holding the title of Assistant president of homeland security. The mission of the office was regarded as the development and coordination as well as overseeing the implementation of a comprehensively secure national strategy for the United States, protecting the land from threats and attacks. Further, the office was supposed to coordinate the efforts of the executive in detecting, preparing, preventing, protecting, responding, and recovering terrorist attacks within the United States. The establishment of the office was on November 25, 2002 within the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (Homeland Security, 2013). Even before the bill could be signed into law, there arose controversy between the federal bureau of investigation and the central intelligence agency. The issue was whether both agencies were to be wholly or partially incorporated into the office. Despite this stalemate between the two agencies, president bush went ahead to sign the bill into law. Officially, this department began its operations in January 24, 2003 as the Department of homeland security. This created the biggest reorganization in the United States since the United States department of defence was created. Before the department was up and running, it was faced by a myriad of problems. While the stalemate between the Central Investigation Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation delayed it’s commence, Tom Ridge who was the founder assistant president of the department resigned from his position in November 30 2004 after George W. Bush re-elected as the president of the United States. With time though, these issues have been resolved to make sure that the department functions smoothly and properly. There is minimal political interference in the affairs of the department currently, as it has been set with increased levels of independency (Friedman, 2011). The Responsibilities and Obligations of the Department, Although its mandate is protecting the people of the United States, its jurisdiction does not fall only in the United States. In conjunction with the department of defence, the department of the homeland security works in the sphere of the civilian population to protect the United States within, at and outside its borders. DHS in its expansion activity has absorbed some departments and assumed their duties of such as the Immigration and Naturalization Service. After the absorption, of the department, the enforcement and the services of the Immigration and Naturalization Service were created into two separate agencies which included immigration and customs enforcement and citizenship immigration services. Homeland Security Investigations was created by a further merger of the investigative and intelligence gathering units of the INS and the customs service. Under the new DHS, the functions which were previously handled by the US border patrol, the Customs service functions, and the duties of the Animal and plant health inspection service were consolidated into a new agency called the US Customs and Border Protection (“Homeland Security”, 2013). Duties of all these departments have been consolidated to be incorporated in the DHS. For ease of monitoring and evaluation of the services by these departments, they were consolidated together be headed by a single authority. Although many people were against these mergers and absorption plans proposed and effected then, there was no other way the autonomy of the DHS could be achieved. As its main purpose was to protect the United States, it had to take control of the border operations. Internally, there is little threat of attack as long as the law enforcing officers handle their duties properly. However, due to the stake that the united states hold in trying to combat international terrorism activities, it has constantly fallen into conflicts with terrorist groups. As a result, they stage external attacks like the one on September 11. It is due to this reason that the Department of Homeland Security took control of the border and immigration departments. Measures of Ensuring Homeland Security by DHS According to “Homeland Security” (2013), since its inception, the department of homeland security has undertaken various steps and measures to ensure that it fulfils its mandate of providing homeland security. The creation of the Homeland Security Advisory System was geared at issuing a comprehensive and effective means of disseminating any information related to the risk of terrorist acts on the United States. This system is a color-coded terrorism risk advisory scale and was created with the directives issued by the president in 2012. The system works by inspecting cars that are entering a particular facility. The facility searches all cars and the system is alerted when the risk gets to a certain specified level. This security system has consistently been administered in collaboration with the DHS since 2003. Although it has faced huge ridicule and criticism from a section of experts who have cited its ineffectiveness, it has been maintained. The homeland security advisory system warning system has classified the risk of attack as severe, high, elevated, guarded or low. Action is thus taken in accordance with the level registered by the system. After the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, a website called the “Ready.gov” was created by the Martin Agency of Richmond in Virginia. Just before the Iraq war in 2003, materials for the website were received in March 2002. In creating readiness for any attack, the very first announcement by the website stated that in case of an attack, the citizens should make use of duct tapes and plastic sheets to build protection. As a result of his awareness, the site was criticized to be too alarming among the people. Banner ads were used in promoting the website (“Homeland Security”, 2013). National Incident Management System was yet another measure undertaken by the DHS to carry out its mandate. The main purpose of this system was meant to provide a consistent means of managing incidences by the federal, state, local and tribal governments of the United States. This was yet issued under the presidential directive, requiring all the federal departments to adopt the NIMS and subsequently use it in their individual domestic incident management and emergency. National Response Plan, having been created in December 2004 had the biggest mission of aligning federal coordination structures, capabilities, and resources into unified, all-disciplined and hazardous approaches to domestic incident management. However in 2008, the National Response Framework was published and replaced the National Response Plan with the same duties and mandate. Budgetary Issues The Department of Homeland Security has increasingly been awarded huge budgetary allocations since its inception. The need for equipment and weapons, training, salaries of all the 200,000 employees as well as research has necessitated huge amounts of money. In the fiscal year 2011, the department was allocated a total of $98.8 billion for its expenditure. However, it only spent a total of $66.4 billion. This has created a public outcry as the move has been described to be wasteful of taxpayer’s money. However in 2012, it was authorised to draw a budget of $46.9 billion. These funds were allocated in various areas of its operation according to percentages and their relevance. These include departmental operations, office of the inspector general, citizenship and immigration services, secret service, immi8gration and customs enforcement, customs and boarder protection, transportation security administration among others. In the financial year 2014, the department was awarded a budget of $44,672,346 (“Homeland Security”, 2013). Strengths and weaknesses of Department of Homeland Security Department of Homeland Security has a number of strengths as well as weaknesses. The agency enjoys a proper communication strategy. Due to the fact that a number of agencies have been brought under one roof, the communication process and protocols have been massively simplified. DHS has created an inter-agency framework for communication which was previously non-existence. Commission that was set up to 8nvcestigaye the attack in September 11 cited communication problems to have been a great problem between the federal agencies such as the CIA and the FBI. Council (2013) points out that the department also enjoys the strength of regional management since instead of its operations being managed from the same building; they are distributed in 10 different offices situated around the country. This form of decentralization allows for increased specialization of the regional employees. DHS as a department has an estimated number of 200,000 employees under its umbrella. Due to the decentralization nature of the offices, workers in the southern offices receive training on how to deal with hurricanes while those in the northwest receive training on port security. Various weaknesses faced by the department include its size which has been described as too big and thus leading to too much waste. The various government agencies forming the DHS include federal emergency management agency, immigration and naturalization service and the coast guard. In fact, these agencies were either adopted into the department or were formed as a result of mergers of different agencies. The 200,000 number of employees under the department has been described as uneconomical and wasteful (Council, 2013). Although the department is considered to be too big, it has been given numerous tasks ranging from airport security, border monitoring, and responding to national disaster. Just three months after its formation, the Department Of Homeland Security put into a test by Hurricane Katrina. It faced increased public scorn and criticism on the haphazard manner in which it handled the disaster. There was lack of personnel and professionalism that was essential in handling disasters of such a magnitude. Conclusion The DHS was created as a means of providing effective security strategy to the United States and its citizens. Having been started as an Office of Homeland Security, it was later transformed into a fully-fledged department with more agencies and increased mandate. As the department expanded, so did its employee base, which currently stands at 200,000. Today, the DHS holds various responsibilities such as offering border security, airport security as well as responding to natural disasters. The mandate however includes investigation as the Federal Investigation Bureau and the Central Investigation Department. To ensure that it fulfils its mandate, DHS has introduced a number of directives that are directed at improving the security of the country such as the National Response Plan, National Incident Management System, “Ready.gov” website and the Homeland Security Advisory System. Although it is faced by different challenges such as its huge size and numerous roles that it has to handle, it has strengths that range from good communication processes and regional management. Being a huge department, the department has been awarded numerous budgetary allocations which are aimed at ensuring its efficiency. References Top of Form Bottom of Form “Homeland Security” (2013). Budget-in-brief fiscal year 2014. Homeland. Retrieved from www.dhs.gov http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/MGMT/FY%202014%20BIB%20-%20FINAL%20-508%20Formatted%20(4).pdf “Homeland security” (2013). Creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/creation-department-homeland-security “Homeland security” (2013). DHS efficiency review. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/dhs-efficiency-review Alden, E. (2002). Are We Safer from Terrorists, Americans Ask: Worries Have Grown despite the Imminent Creation of the Homeland Security Department Following 9/11, says Edward Alden. Financial Times. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/249262042?accountid=45049 Council, T (2013). Department of Homeland Security Strengths and Weaknesses, politics and society. Retrieved from http://suite101.com/article/department-of-homeland-security-strengths-and-weaknesses-a284818 Friedman, B. H. (2011). Managing fear: The politics of homeland security. Political Science Quarterly, 126(1), 77-0_10. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/859256538?accountid=45049 Read More