Introduction
Homeland security, a board in the U.S., is responsible for internal security; it achieves its goals through taking amicable measures towards preventing terrorism. Due to increase in terrorism cases, the federal government of the U.S. decided to make some changes to the homeland security to effect its purpose within the state.
Apart from fighting terrorism, Homeland Security plays a vital role in informing the citizens on the importance of preparedness and rapid response to natural disasters and attacks. Homeland Security also performs other functions within the state; some of them include supervision of domestic activities, infrastructure and outskirts protection, boarder observance, and scrutinize transport movements and observance of bio-defense.
Terrorist attacks
Mcentire & Ekici, (2009 Pg-110) in their book explain on the efforts made by Homeland Security towards preventing terrorists from attacking people in public meetings, they do this by enacting ample investigations on the plot of terrorists. In addition, in protection of terrorist attacks, Homeland Security carries out protection surveillance at public meetings.
Apart from Homeland security inputting much effort in learning about suspicious crimes, and taking preventive measures at an early state, they also inform people in the society on the negative impacts of terrorists hence succeeding in creation of terrorist resistant communities.
Mcentire & Ekici, (2009 Pg-111) further explain on how Homeland’s security plays big roles in maintaining internal peace through monitoring transactions movements made in banks by suspected groups. Through this, Homeland Security manages to curtail the funding source of the criminals hence, succeeding in eradicating terrorists.
Awareness and response
Apart from Homeland Security solving the issue of insecurity in the community level by informing the public of the expected challenges, it also deploys some community members and informs them of the right measures to take in case of an attack. In addition, Forest (2006 Pg-24) also explains on how Homeland Security informs the public of the importance of preparedness for anything including disasters, and advising them on the right steps to make in case of a problem.
Boarder observance
The U.S. state suffers from immigration of many people from nearby states, majority of these people find their way into some posts in the government hence leading to increase of terrorism cases. To solve this, Homeland Security employs some military forces that take part in controlling the movements of people and vehicles across the borders. Homeland Security also carries out a serious investigation on the immigrants ranked in high governmental posts and their roles in government, and advocates for their work termination. Challenge from Canadian policy in giving out passports without much procedure exposes the U.S. government to terrorists.
To prevent this, Homeland Security grants enough workforces to the boarder forces hence success in maintaining peace. Homeland Security also grants immigrants less access to the requirements of the law, hence succeeding in doing away with illegal immigration.
Drug smuggling
Majority of internal conflicts in the U.S. are triggered by the consumption of hard drugs, these drugs get introduced to the U.S. through movements of people across the border. According to Forest (2006 Pg-5), majority of the young citizens get spoilt through the use of drugs, these young individuals involve themselves in drug smuggling in the streets. To solve this, according to Forest, Homeland Security apart from employing thorough investigative technique on the movement of materials across the border, takes part in informing youths on the side effects of using drugs and penalties associated with violation of country’s law.
Community rectification
Change of the U.S. into a national surveillance state contributes to Homeland Security imposing amicable methods that will help observe and control the movements of its citizens. Among the methods employed by the humanitarian security are, sanction of parole and probation practices that helped in monitoring the conducts individuals. Homeland Security also installed electronic gadgets such as cameras to help monitor conducts of individuals in the society.
Community strategies
To achieve the goal of nurturing secure security in the U.S., Homeland Security advocates for partnership in leadership leading to reduction of security cases at the community level. It does this by informing the community individuals of the importance of their participation in community observance against terrorism. Homeland Security also trains the community individuals on how to handle difficult situations leading to advancement of security status in the U.S.
Bioterrorists
Majority of the terrorists have adopted biological weapons, and look forward to putting them into practice. However, Forest, (2006 Pg-65) portrays on how Homeland Security solves this by enacting appropriate measures towards controlling movements across the borders, and production of vaccines that will aid in controlling the spread of the introduced diseases. It also creates awareness among the community members on the effect of introduced diseases and advices them on the appropriate measures to be taken to prevent themselves from contracting them.
Criminal investigation
Some of the criminal investigations are prone to eye witnessing, however, due to involvement of human officers in gathering information from the eyewitnesses; mistakes can be made, hence affecting the accuracy of the information. Failure in making right decisions may lead to cropping of differences between the criminal and the investigator. However, specific measures have been put in place to help solve the frequent eyewitness mistakes made. For example, Samaha, (2012 Pg-260) in his writing explains how currently most law enforcement agencies have developed policies of handling eyewitness evidence, hence leading to inoculation of trust in citizens towards law enacting agencies.
Samaha further explains on how improvement in technology has expounded the information gathering and accuracy through eyewitness evidence given. Improvement in law enacting force also grants prosecutors, criminal justice professionals, and eyewitness police hope and trust towards the validity of information extracted from observance made. In addition, the changes in the law enacting force improve the system used in criminal justice in evaluating the potency and precision of eyewitness proof.
In conclusion, homeland security have contributed immensely to the peaceful coexistence in the U.S., it has succeeded in its activities through involvement of the public into carrying out investigation against criminals. Its success also portrays the hard work of military force in manning the boarders against intrusion of illegal individuals. The measures carried by Homeland Security in regulating the movement of the immigrants towards the U.S. also have considerable impact on reducing the cases of terrorism. Despite the efforts of Homeland Security in maintaining internal security, it receives many challenges from group of persons involved in possession of fake documents.
On the other hand, Samaha (2012 Pg-240) through his writing outlines on how ruling out individuals over their crimes is challenging to the law enacting forces. He argues on inaccuracy in information gathering being the cause of misunderstanding and miscalculations while solving cases. According to him, misinterpretation of the information witnessed may lead to wrong judgment of a case that will eventually result to cropping of differences among the persons involved.
References
Forest, J. (2006). Homeland Security: Public spaces and social institutions. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Forest, J. (2006). Homeland Security [Three Volumes]: Protecting America’s Targets. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Mcentire, D.,& Ekici, A. (2009). Building Terrorism Resistant Communities: Together Against Terrorism. Mexico: IOS Press.
Samaha, J. (2012). Criminal Justice. New York: Cengage Learning.