Term Paper on "Homeland Defense"

Term Paper 11 pages (4253 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Homeland Defense

Agency Identification: In this paper, the three agencies selected for their involvement in Homeland Defense at the federal, state which is NY and local which is NYPD level are Federal Emergency Management Agency -- FEMA at the federal level, Citywide Incident Management System -- CIMS at the state which is NY level and New York Police Department -- NYPD at the local level.

FEMA (a) Jurisdiction: FEMA:- FEMA stands for Federal Emergency Management Agency which is a part of Department of Homeland's Security -- DHS Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate. (About FEMA) b) Size: The workforce of FEMA consists of more than 2,600 employees working full-time at their headquarters in Washington D.C., and also at the regional and area offices throughout the country, the Mount Weather Emergency Operations Centre, and the National Emergency Training Centre in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Besides, FEMA also has 4,000 disaster assistance employees as reserve whose services are available post disaster. More often than not, FEMA discharges its functions as a collaborative effort with other organizations which are a constituent of the nation's emergency management system. FEMA's partners in these efforts include state and local emergency management agencies, 27 federal agencies and the American Red Cross. (About FEMA)

Mission: FEMA became a part of the U.S. Department's DHS on March 1, 2003. FEMA's long-term mission while coming under the fold of the new Department is to spearhead the effort to prepare the country for every type of hazard and efficiently manage federal response and efforts of recovery after any national incident with a vision of 'A Nation Prepared.' FEMA also takes initiatives with regard to proactive alleviation activities, imparts training to first responders, and administrates the National Flood Insurance Program and the U.S. Fire Administration. (About FEMA)

CIMS (a) Jurisdiction: The jurisdiction of Citywide Incident Management System -- CIMS was made applicable to the City of New York broadly based on the National Incident Command Model. The outcome of the protocol emerged from a federal mandate that needed NYC to comply with the federal norms as stipulated in the DHS's National Incident Management System -- NIMS. (Citywide Incident Management System) b) Size: The size of CIMS as regards its command structure is concerned is based on the Unified Command protocol supported by 4 major sections i.e. Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration with each Section headed by a Section Chief charged with the management of the tactical operations at the site of the scene. CIMS also foresees two or more Deputy Operations Section Chiefs. Norms of command and control by the various agencies are enforced. Police commanders, Fire Commanders and others are liable to their resources at the site of the incident. (Citywide Incident Management System)

Mission: (i) Defining the manner in which the citywide emergencies or several larger incidents will be tackled (ii) Defining the role of the agency and responsibilities at the time of emergencies (iii) Establishing the NIMS Incident Command Model -- ICS norm as the NYC's incident management system. (iv) Describing the functional execution of CIMS (v) Aligning the manner in which the incident operations, inclusive of Life Safety, investigation, site management and recovery restoration are prioritized and when they can be able to be implemented together. (vi) Setting up of process of post-action review and assessment of emergency responses and implementing the lessons which are learned (vii) Defining ICS execution and training needs if NYC agencies involved in citywide response. (CIMS- Citywide Incident Management System)

NYPD (a) Jurisdiction: NYPD or the New York City Police Department in the United States holds the fundamental responsibility for enforcement of various laws and carrying out investigations within the five regions of NY City. NYPD is regarded as the first police department to function in a modern style in the United States on the lines of Metropolitan Police of London. The chief of NYPD is the New York City Police Commissioner with the senior sworn officer ranked as the Chief of the Department. The Department is divided into 10 bureaus and each being headed by a Bureau Chief, where the Chief of Detectives lies at the apex of the Detective Bureau. The 10 bureaus are "Patrol Services, Detective, Criminal Justice, Organized Crime Patrol, Transportation, Support Services, Housing, Internal Affairs, and Personnel & Training." (New York City Police Department) b) Size: The size of the police force has varied in keeping with the requirements which include crime rates, politics, and sources of funding. On the whole, the trend depicts that the number of its sworn offices is going down. During June 2005 the number of sworn offices is 35,000 whereas the corresponding figure for last year was 40,000. (New York City Police Department)

Mission: NYPD is guided by the mission to improve the quality of life of the residents of NY City through collaborative efforts in partnership with the community and in harmony with the constitutional rights to enforce the laws, maintain peace, instill a sense of security among the residents and provide for a secured environment. (About NYPD)

2) Role in Homeland Defense:

FEMA: Undoubtedly, among the functionaries engaged in disaster preparedness, FEMA's role is more encompassing than others and covers a broad spectrum of activities. FEMA's role in homeland defense lies in (i) providing consultation in building codes and flood plain management (ii) educating people in tiding over a disaster (iii) capacity building in local and state emergency preparedness (iv) co-ordinating the federal response in case of a disaster (v) ensuring that disaster assistance is made available to the states, communities, businesses and individuals (vi) providing training to emergency managers (vii) rendering support to the country's fire service (viii) managing the national flood and crime insurance programs. FEMA has a major role to play in disaster mitigation, which can be better explained by studying the life cycle of disasters. The disaster life cycle defines a procedure through which the Emergency Managers of FEMA ready themselves for emergencies and disasters, react to them during their incidence, render assistance to people and also other institutions, recover from them, alleviate their impact, lower the danger of losses, and curb disasters like fire from happening. In every stage of the continuum, FEMA's responsibility lies with building and supporting the nation's emergency management system. (About FEMA: What We Do)

Since its humble beginning through the Congressional Act of 1803, FEMA, which was earlier an independent body became a part of the newly formed Department of Homeland Security in March 2003; which is mandated with the responsibility of responding to, recovering from and mitigating from disasters. FEMA was engaged in major disaster recovery operations in the past in the events like Hurricane Carla in 1962, Besty in 1965, Camila in 1969, Anges in 1972 and more recently in the 9/11 event of terrorist attack. The 9/11 events focused the agency on matters of national preparedness and homeland security, and challenged the agency like never before. FEMA aligned its operations with the Homeland Security and its own office of National Preparedness was assigned the responsibility for helping to guarantee that the country's first responders were properly given training and also prepared to deal with WMD. FEMA has received billions of dollars by way of new funding to help communities encounter the threat of terrorism. Barely past its 20th foundation day FEMA was engaged in spearheading its foolproof approach to disasters concerning homeland security matters. After its joining the Department of Home Security -DHS, it signaled a coordinated approach to national security from emergencies and disasters consisting of natural as well as man-made. Currently, FEMA is acknowledged as one of the four major wings of DHS armed with a 2500 strong full-time employees in the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate with more than 5000 reserve staff. (FEMA History)

This apart, FEMA is a member of several interagency groups linked to preparedness for domestic terrorism. It takes part with the National Security Council's WMD Preparedness Group and also two of its sub-groups i.e. The Assistance to State and Local Authorities Group and the Contingency Planning & Exercises Group. FEMA extends it support and coordinates with the Department of Justice on its program for preparedness training for terrorism activities, the state and local capabilities assessment project, and the equipment grant program. FEMA also serves on the Secretary of Defense's WMD Advisory panel. The organization also discharges an active leadership role in terrorism consequence planning. (Combating Terrorism: FEMA Continues to Make Progress in Coordinating Preparedness and Response: Participation in Interagency and Intra-agency Groups and Committees)

FEMA coordinates federal response, at the national level through the Emergency Support Function Leaders Group, the Catastrophic Disaster Response Group consisting of 27 signatories of the Federal Response Plan, and the Concept Plan Working Group. FEMA brings out the National Exercise Schedule following compilation and coordinating information from federal departments and agencies with emergency management responsibilities. In association with the relevant federal departments and agencies, FEMA also evaluated the potential of federal agencies to provide consequence management in an incident pertaining to WMD. FEMA and the other agencies found out… READ MORE

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