Strategy Memo

Strategy Memo

June 12th, 2013

T0:Mr. XYZ

FROM:ABC

SUBJECT:Recommendations for the Future Fusion Centers

Background

Homeland security can be organized into 3 categories: preparedness, incident management, and recovery. Preparedness against terrorist attacks has seemingly occupied all the attention and funds of the U.S. Congress since the 9/11 attacks (Larence, 2011). In preparation for another catastrophe, Tom Ridge spent over a billion dollars on fire apparatus, radiological protection gear, and other anticipated post-incident equipment during his tenure as secretary of homeland security. Though this was not necessarily money ill spent, the 9/11 Commission found that intelligence failures were responsible for the successes of the terrorist attacks, not a lack of preparedness. For example, no committee report suggested that additional fire apparatus in New York City, Pennsylvania, or Washington would have swayed the outcome of the 9/11 attacks or mitigated the loss of life (Larence, 2011). And yet little federal funding went to intelligence operations immediately following the 2001 attacks; instead, fire departments across the United States reaped the monetary benefits of a nation mourning the loss of 341 firefighters in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. Therefore, in the years following 9/11, the United States was better prepared to react to a cataclysmic attack but was no better prepared to proactively thwart terrorism than it had been beforehand.

Discussion

Thus, the aptitude of fusion centers to carry out an all-hazards and all-crimes mission demands long-term and durable investment. So far, there have been a number of success stories regarding fusion centers.

One such accomplishment took place in May 2008, at the time when North California's DHS Intelligence Operational Specialist directed with Federal representatives on an alert for a 3 year old kid who was kidnapped and to be taken out of the U.S. by a suspect sought after for murder and rape (Callahan, 2010). Through coordination ...