In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

A new Congressionally-mandated commission has found that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) risk analysis capabilities and methods are not yet adequate for supporting DHS decision making.
The National Academies’ commission’s report — “Review of the Department of Homeland Security’s Approach to Risk Analysis” — does, however, approve of the Department’s current risk approach on natural [...]

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As the U.S. marks the ninth anniversary of 9/11, I wanted to post some ideas that I think would help raise citizen preparedness and engagement. The recommendations come from discussions that I have had with people involved in all aspects of the issue, my own experiences as a parent and CERT member in New York [...]

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In a good example of government involving average citizens in the nation’s homeland security effort, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has selected a 28-year-old Roanoke, Virginia woman’s public information campaign to help educate the public on cybersecurity.
Melissa Short’s “Cybersecurity Starts Here” campaign was one of the winners of the National Cyber Awareness Challenge “which called [...]

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In a memo to FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate this week, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano ordered a “two-year progressive national drilling program which increases the total number of exercises and culminates in a full-scale, biennial intergovernmental National Level Exercise (NLE).”
Thanks to Bill Cumming for sending me the memo; he will be writing about it on his Vacation Lane [...]

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On the Amtrak train back to New York City Friday night from Washington, I saw something and said something — but this tip was good news.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has just begun rolling out a national “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign, and I saw its new advertising posters in many of [...]

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U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday announced a series of initiatives to support state and local law enforcement, community groups and the public in identifying and mitigating terror threats.
“Homeland security begins with hometown security, and our efforts to confront threats in our communities are most effective when they are led by [...]

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When it comes to the subject of what citizens should be doing to improve their disaster preparedness too often the focus is solely on emergency supplies or plans. Less attention is paid to what each of us can do as citizens to improve our community’s and nation’s preparedness by participating in the political process as [...]

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Last week, I wrote about a new partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police to research how to improve the public’s response to suspicious activity. The findings will help the government as it expands the “See Something, Say Something” campaign nationally which was announced earlier this month [...]

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Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced yesterday that the Department would be launching a nationwide “See Something, Say Something” campaign.
Napolitano made the announcement in New York City’s Penn Station at the beginning of a daylong train tour down the northeastern corridor highlighting rail security.
The “See Something” campaign was initially created by New York’s Metropolitan Transit [...]

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There’s an opinion piece on the website of Homeland Security Today, “Who’s Learning Faster, Al Qaeda or Us?” by Erroll G. Southers. Southers, associate director of the National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, argues that citizens have a significant role in homeland security, focusing in particular on Suspicious Activity Reports [...]

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