Implement a New Strategy - IMPERATIVES AND POLICY OPTIONS

C. THE RESEARCH AREA

IV. IMPERATIVES AND POLICY OPTIONS

3. Implement a New Strategy

The third alternative for America is to implement a new homeland security strategy - one that is collaborative in design, considers the local citizens valued partners, and integrates all of America’s homeland security, law enforcement, intelligence and military assets into a synergistic strategy. The new strategy must be based on the over- arching concept of “municipal homeland security” and be constructed with a bottom-up design that supports federal and state homeland security strategy.

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In America, there are three levels of government, but only two levels of homeland security strategy. The MHSS approach is to create a foundational level of homeland security strategy that supports both national and state strategy.

Figure 5. Proposed Three Levels of Homeland Security Strategy

A new strategy must create community-level partnerships through unity of effort, efficiency, flexibility, structure, and commonality across a wide spectrum of multiple agencies, disciplines and jurisdictions. It must have a clear vision and mission statement that is equally applicable to federal, state and municipal entities of all sizes. Finally, the strategy must provide specific standards, objectives, goals, and performance measures that are realistic and can be met by municipal police agencies and communities alike. This thesis asserts there is such a strategy available to homeland security policy makers. That strategy is entitled: Municipal Homeland Security Strategy (MHSS).

The Municipal Homeland Security Strategy (MHSS) is a new approach to protecting the homeland – so new, in fact, that it completely redirects our national vision from federal-level entities to community-level partnerships. The new strategy flips our national strategy from a decidedly federal approach to a municipal orientation. After all, Thomas Ridge, former director of the department of Homeland Security, said, “…the homeland is not secure until the hometown is secure.”61

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dyn/content/article/2005/12/24/AR2005122400373_pf.html (accessed November 17, 2008).

National Strategy for Homeland Security (NSHS) State Homeland Security Strategy (SHSS) Municipal Homeland Security Strategy (MHSS)

The new strategy would create a nationally standardized collaborative network of Municipal Homeland Security Programs (MHSPs). These programs will form the foundation of America’s homeland security strategy by linking every community, large and small, in the country.

The MHSS is based on the municipal police community as well as the local citizenry. It is not based on a single point of contact at the local law enforcement agency (like the TLO Program). In this strategy, municipal police and local citizens are equal participants.

This strategy is about force multiplying, local partnerships and synergy. It combines all of America’s homeland security assets and regionalizes them into collaborative groups, based on the pre-existing jurisdictions of local district attorneys. Instead of police agencies looking to join anti-terrorism and homeland security groups at the state or federal level, America’s federal and state homeland security assets join municipal homeland security programs at the local level and collaboratively devise innovate ways to protect those communities from terrorism. Even businesses, large and small, will be asked to participate in this strategy. Municipal homeland security programs create shared responsibilities and are dedicated to local communities.

By placing homeland security assets into communities, municipalities are able to take ownership of their situation, identify shared interests, direct homeland security assets and solve specific homeland security-related problems.