Homeland Security

Running head: HOMELAND SECURITY
Homeland Security
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Author Note

1HOMELAND SECURITY
It has been realised by the United States local and state government prior to the 9/11
attack that it is of utmost importance to be prepared for emergency situations to respond
against terrorism or any other form of attack. Over the years the state and the local
government have tried its best to improve their response capability for dealing with terrorism
that may include nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction, and biological, chemical or
radiological weapons (Jensen & Waugh Jr, 2014).
The United States Congress had established an advisory panel to assess domestic
response capabilities for terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction (also known as the
Gilmore Commission in 1998) for evaluating the progress of preparedness by the local as
well as state government in times of emergency which requires immediate response and the
strategic action in order to fight terrorism. In this regard the RAND Corporation had
conducted a survey to inspect the progress of the state and local response organisations like
the law enforcement, office of emergency management, fire fighting services, medical
services, public health agencies, and hospitals. The preparedness of the emergency services
was tested through survey in 2002 and 2003 (Carafano, 2017).
Prior to the 9/11 attack the state and local government adopted several steps to make
themselves more prepared in times of emergency for terrorist attacks. Some of the
precautionary steps taken by the organisations are: updated mutual aid agreements in times of
emergency, updated plan for biological radiological and chemical attack along with a
complete risk assessment that the organisations might have to go through (Jensen & Waugh
Jr, 2014). However it is not possible to measure the preparedness of the organisations for
there is a lack of standardized measure of readiness of the respective governments, as such
information are classified and sensitive. Yet, the state and local government have undertaken
different kinds of measures to boost its preparedness, be it for a natural disaster or a terrorist
attack.