Roles of Intelligence Agencies in Homeland Security

Running head: ROLES OF INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES IN HOMELAND SECURITY
Roles of Intelligence Agencies in Homeland Security
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ROLES OF INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES IN HOMELAND SECURITY
Intelligence Agencies and their Functions in Homeland Security
There are 16 intelligence agencies that have been given different roles towards realizing
the United States policies and goals of national and international security. The 16 intelligence
agencies make up the Intelligence Community (IC) headed by the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence. The Intelligence agencies are further divided into close to 1,300
government organizations and about 2,000 private institutions working to realize the tasks under
Intelligence and Counterterrorism and Homeland Security (Ortmeier, 2017).
According to the report issued during the 116th Congress by Michael Devine, Homeland
Security and the Intelligence Community have a complex function for the national security of the
U.S citizens and international borders (Brady, 2015). Michael Devine was referring to the 9/11
terror attack and the failure of communication between intelligence and law enforcement to
combat similar attacks (Cordero, 2019). Agencies demonstrated distrust hence creating barriers
that protected civil liberties that became too rigid to surpass. Sharing of information has been
further enhanced through the identification of barriers to national security and the creation of
new policies and regulations through legislation.
The Homeland Security Act of 2002 was tasked with integrating law enforcement, border
security, disaster management immigration, customs, cybersecurity, and intelligence in relation
countering terrorism. DHS has been working with a budget of $40.6 billion with more than
250,000 employees. The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004
came up with a Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) to coordinate and manage federal terrorism
(Brockington, 2012). DHS has 17 elements and 16 intelligence agencies working to ensure
national security.