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Homeland Security Best Practices: A State's Perspective

On March 25, 2009, the Center for National Policy hosted Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley in an event entitled "Homeland Security Best Practices: A State's Perspective."  Governor O'Malley not only oversees domestic security for his home state of Maryland, but is also a Lead Governor on homeland security issues for the National Governor's Association.  As mayor of Baltimore, O'Malley oversaw a 40% reduction in violent crime, while his CitiStat information accountability system received Harvard University's prestigious Innovations in American Government award.

Governor O'Malley began the conversation by commenting on the decentralized nature of national metropolitan terrorist contingency planning. This creates what O'Malley called a "continuum of preparedness."  Because there are no national standards guiding local metropolitan contingency plans, city preparedness tends to drop off once one moves away from the densely populated East Coast cities, leaving the rest vulnerable to a future attack.

To rectify this situation Governor O'Malley recommended a policy that emphasized clearly defined national goals, and adequate funding to back those goals up.  Specifically, Governor O'Malley presented a number of policy proposals designed to enhance preparedness and cooperation among metropolitan emergency response teams.  The first and most important improvement must come in the realm of interoperable communications.  Emergency response teams need communication systems which can manage messages from multiple departments and agencies, so as to best coordinate their activities in a crisis.  

Another important area is agency intelligence sharing.  O'Malley brought up the fact that local police do not have centralized online access to state parole and probation records.  If the police cannot get information on individuals already under state supervision, how could they get information on a terrorist cell trained in evading detection?  To boost information sharing, the O'Malley administration created a public safety "Dashboard" which allows individual law enforcement officials to easily access and publish information on parolees, gun ownership, vulnerable children, and other vital sources of intelligence. 

Other areas focus on hardening existing targets and providing response teams with the training and the equipment necessary to handle unexpected asymmetric attacks.  Here, O'Malley placed special emphasis on funding our HAZMAT and bomb squad teams, while investing more money in personal protective equipment for all first responders.  Proper surveillance is also imperative; not only increasing traditional surveillance at bridges or government buildings, but also investing in bio-surveillance to give advanced forewarning of a pandemic or biological attack.  Still other recommendations include increasing hospital surge capacity to deal with the potential for mass casualties, and providing ample backup power and communications so that responders can continue to operate even in the midst of massive destruction of infrastructure.  Of course all of these are tied together with rigorous training and planning.  Cities need to not only anticipate potential types of attacks, but also be able to coordinate planned responses in the face of uncertainty and crisis. 

O'Malley argues that the major obstacle to implementing these initiatives is not a lack of technology, but a lack of political will.  Although spending $1 billion on interoperability would have been unheard of a few years ago, the Obama administration's emphasis on economic stimulus and investment in infrastructure would make even double that amount politically feasible.  More importantly, however, are the positive externalities associated with preparedness reform. For instance, bio-surveillance can detect not only weaponized anthrax, but also an outbreak of pandemic flu.  Intelligence sharing can not only prevent a terrorist attack, but also help put traditional criminals behind bars.  And of course increased training, planning and the use of interoperable radios can aid emergency responders in all aspects of their duties.  

• CNP shares the view that interoperable communications must be a top priority in homeland security reforms.

• CNP also shares the view that localities cannot solely focus on preventing disasters from occurring, but must place an equally important emphasis on responding to one in the event that it does occur. Proper plans must be put in place and be well understood by all relevant parties.