The creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was marked by malicious terrorist bombardment on September, 11. Various security agencies have been regrouped and reorganized with the common goal of fostering security. The main function of Homeland Security is to protect the country from terrorism and any other form of attack.
This system plans to create common goals, structures, and context for a forthcoming national discussion about the character and nature of the dangers confronting the homeland and about pertinent strategies that should be worked out in response.
Despite great opportunities and activities the department is involved, it still needs certain improvement because of existing problems in terms of Border Security, Infrastructure, and information technologies.
The Department of Homeland Security should provide a number of solutions that will contribute to managing the existing problems, such as information security, immigration issues, cyber space risk. Hence, the managers should provide law reinforcement and introduce new management sectors regulating cultural issues, and create a solid ground for building a security system.
Being a body that covers a wide range of security concerns with country protection in a hostile world, it faces numerous challenges. Border security is among them. It is the DHS obligation to control and protect the borders from these illegal immigrants and external influence of terrorist attacks. Since immigrants come in great amounts, the DHS lacks adequate qualified force and relies on contract personnel.
This above presented gap should be immediately eliminated via customs enforcement that will prevent the violation of existing rights and regulations. It is also necessary to introduce effective training programs for improving the patrol agents work as well as their ability to make rational decisions. Such a policy will deprive foreigner for extreme tortures during the customs.
The infrastructures are distributed all over the country and, therefore, lack of centrality becomes a challenging task. Some of these infrastructures are also sensitive, like the nuclear plants; others, like information and technology, are constantly changing with new discoveries, upgrading, invention, and modifications. The department has also the oversight duty of coordinating and supervising security for certain sectors like banking and national monuments.
Some of the tasks require working with private security firms to deter and neutralize threats. Managing Information technology has also been a big obstacle. Creating one system of information technology that is unified for easier accessibility and management of assets, data, and department programs has been a daunting task that has derailed a smooth transition and running of the department. Security of the programs has also been of a major concern.
Hackers and terrorists have been trying to access top security secrets. The projects to create inter- connected systems to consolidate and modernize its programs across board referred to as One Net has been hit by many challenges.
In order to face the problem effectively, cyber crime and hacking regulation requires highly qualified personnel that are not easily available. Impossibility to work out effective strategies for controlling virtual space creates problems with illegal cyber-space invasion. In this respect, there is an urgent necessity to introduce more secure knowledge management systems that would take control of information exchange within the Department.
In addition, lack of necessary technological improvements as well as experienced staff for coping with the emergency situations is another obstacle to be immediately removed. Financial support should be strengthened to re-organize the overall system of managing information and introduce improvement in the sphere of budget planning and distribution.
The US has a sophisticated transport system and the DHS should take steps to ensure against any transport crimes. It is worth stating that the Department of Homeland Security to fails to pay close attention to the protection of rural areas from terrorist attacks. Rural communities lack sufficient support and security because they have false assumptions concerning the idea that terrorism is not an urban problem.
In order to consider this problem, this sector of economy should be carefully tackled by the DHS administrative board that is more focused on the protection of the country’s urban centers. It is also necessary to introduce specific rural facilities such strong telecommunication network, health care delivery systems, and rescue facilities in cases of fire or other contingencies.
The department has had a challenge in its reliance on dual accountability policy as well as dual collaboration, which has led to cultural problems. However, individual executive officers have come up with their own mechanisms which are that sometimes contradict those cultural issues. As a result, the situation affects cohesion and conventionality in the Department, particularly the culture of the particular sector.
In this situation, the best solution will be the creation of personal organizational culture that would amalgamate cultures of different agencies the Department deals with. One of the brightest examples is presented by the emergency management culture that regulates legal and security issues and provides a solid basis for controlling a cultural diversity management.
There are many sectors that are under control of the DHS. These sectors mainly deal with security of the country; however, due to the broad areas covered, they tend to be sub autonomous. Workforce acquisition poses some problems concerning which criteria to apply to harmonize salary regulation, medical cover, leave, insurance, retirement, and many other human resource related issues.
The general feeling is that policies should be developed to ensure equity, harmony, and transparency. Making and implementing such policies should be a priority for the department.
In order enhance the security system of top secret materials storage, it is necessary to introduce changes to this sphere. Particular emphasis should be placed on the analysis of the level of IT development within the department. In addition, the government should pay attention to training courses and programs for the administrative staff to regulate knowledge management within the organization.
In conclusion, the existing problems within the Department of Homeland Security provide a number of viable solutions. First of all, the government should take measures in the sphere of IT technologies and introduce training programs for the staff on knowledge management. Second, greater security levels should be provided for the more safe information storage and, at the same time, greater availability should be implemented for the staff to handle new information and process it properly.
Finally, financial operations should also be reorganized to allocate funds to the fields that are more in need of money. All these solutions should be provided along with considering the past gaps and mistakes in terms of protection and security. In addition, the major focus should be made on the evaluation of the least controlled sections in the United States.
Bibliography
Bullock Jane, Haddow George, Coppola Damon, Yeletaysi Sarp. Introduction to Homeland Security, UK: Elsevier Inc. 2008.
Sauter Mark, Carafona Jay. Homeland security: a complete guide to understanding, preventing, and surviving terrorism, New York: McGraw Hill-Companies, Inc. 2005.
Whitley Joel, Zusman Lynne Eds. Homeland Security: legal and policy issues, Chicago: American Bar Association. 2009.