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Faded Colors: From the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) to the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS)

May 21, 2013 Comments off

Faded Colors: From the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) to the National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) (PDF)

Source: Naval Postgraduate Center

After the events of 9/11, Homeland Security Presidential Directive – 3 (HSPD – 3) established the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS) to provide a comprehensive and effective means to di sseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to federal, state, and local authorities and the American people. Under HSAS, threat levels were raised or lowered 16 times, but never below Threat Level Yellow (Elevated Condition). HSAS should ha ve been straightforward and easy to understand. What evolved was confusion over alerts, lack of specific threat information, concerns over costs to institute and maintain protective measures, and questions regarding what was expected of citizens. Governmen t agencies, the private sector, and the general population became immune with the threat level remaining at or above Yellow.

HSAS was woefully misunderstood not just by the general population, but also within federal, state, and local governments. Ridicul ed by comedians, HSAS gradually began to disappear, to the point where it was necessary to search to find the current threat level, whereas it had once been prominently posted. The purpose of this thesis is to review HSAS and the associated problems, look at comparable international systems, and present an alternative recommendation to provide timely and informative warnings of terrorist threats, and restore credibility by merging HSAS with the already existing DoD force protection conditions.

Categories: national security, Naval Postgraduate Center, psychology and sociology

Management of the Severely Mentally Ill and its Effects on Homeland Security

March 4, 2013 Comments off

Management of the Severely Mentally Ill and its Effects on Homeland Security (PDF)

Source: Naval Postgraduate School

As a result of the events of September 11, 2001, law enforcement agencies nationwide have been assigned a plethora of terrorism prevention and recovery related duties. Many federal documents outline and emphasize duties and responsibilities pertaining to local law enforcement. The prevention of acts of terrorism within communities has become a focal point of patrol activities for state and local police agencies. Simultaneously, local law enforcement is dealing with the unintended consequences of a policy change that in effect removed the daily care of our nation’s severely mentally ill population from the medical community and placed it with the criminal justice system. This policy change has caused a spike in the frequency of arrests of severely mentally ill persons, prison and jail population and the homeless population. A nationwide survey of 2,406 senior law enforcement officials conducted within this paper indicates that the deinstitutionalization of the severely mentally ill population has become a major consumer of law enforcement resources nationwide. This paper argues that highly cost-effective policy recommendations exist that would assist in correcting the current situation, which is needlessly draining law enforcement resources nationwide, thereby allowing sorely needed resources to be directed toward this nation’s homeland security concerns.

Categories: legal and law enforcement, mental health and substance abuse, national security, Naval Postgraduate Center

United States Marine Corps Reserve First Term Attrition Characteristics

May 26, 2012 Comments off
Source:  Naval Postgraduate School
This thesis examines the effect of attrition on USMCR NPS marines who enlisted with a 6X2 contract in FY 1994–2005. Three cohorts were established to determine if the events of September 11, 2001 had any impact on attrition rates with this population. The Pre-9/11 cohort enlisted in FY 1994–1995 and was used as a control group. The Overlap-9/11 cohort enlisted in FY 1996–2001, had no expectation of deployment but many did deploy in support of the Global War on Terrorism. The Post-9/11 cohort enlisted in FY 2002–2005 after 9/11 with full expectation to deploy.
The analysis included previous attrition studies, descriptive statistics, and two different probit regression models to determine the effects of various characteristics on attrition. The variables analyzed included deployment variables, demographics, education and aptitude variables, and regional areas.
The thesis found a decrease in attrition from the Pre-9/11 cohort to the Post-9/11 cohort. This was most likely caused by an increasing unemployment rate and deployments overseas. Deployments to combat areas decreased the probability of attrition. The other variables remained constant throughout the cohorts with predicted results. Overall, attrition is lower after 9/11 but as the economy improves and deployments decrease, attrition could return to Pre-9/11 levels.
Categories: education, military and defense, Naval Postgraduate Center, social and cultural issues
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