Intelligence: Key to Homeland Security Success - Research Paper

Introduction

Intelligence refers to the information, which is the basis of decisions in the homeland security department. Information plays an instrumental role in the overall activities of the department by ensuring timely responses to terror and other threats that pose a security problem to the Americans. Homeland security has invested in intelligence collection, investigation, assessment, and sharing with its different agents as well as other security apparatus in the United States (Fitzpatrick, 2015). The intelligence role played by homeland security ensures the proper functioning of other security apparatus and promotes a proactive approach against organized crime in the United States. This paper will assess the domestic intelligence capacity of homeland security and its potential to meet the domestic security needs given the dynamic crime environment and the changing needs.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

What are the capabilities and limitations of domestic intelligence efforts in supporting the homeland security enterprise?

Homeland Security Enterprise Domestic Intelligence Capabilities

The 9/11 terrorist attack in the United States was the starting point and the depiction of the extent of vulnerability of the United States to terror organizations and individuals. The attack was the culmination of the failure of the domestic intelligence agencies to collect information and formulate proactive measures to prevent the attack from occurring. One of the primary sources of the problem at the 9/11 attack was the fact that intelligence was being collected by multiple agencies and did not have a dedicated domestic intelligence agency dedicated to counterterrorism (Gaines & Kappeler, 2019).

Strengths of Homeland Security Intelligence Capacity

Intelligence in the homeland security department is handled by the Office of Intelligence and Analysis and supported by the Science and Technology Directorate. The Office of Intelligence and Analysis ensures that the local and state-level intelligence capacity is achieved to support the functions of the homeland security department and other security agencies (Gaines & Kappeler, 2019). The primary mission of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis is ensuring the timely sharing of information to ensure the safety of all Americans and ensuring the resiliency of the security apparatus. The Office of Intelligence and Analysis ensures that local and state-level intelligence is integrated into the operations of the DHS by partnering with multiple agencies to identify, mitigate, and respond to security threats. The existence of a directed intelligence operations unit under the DHS has been instrumental in increasing its overall capacity and intelligence preparedness in an ever-changing security environment.

The Office of Intelligence and Analysis ensures that there is a synchronized, cohesive, and integrated intelligence capacity within the DHS, which is instrumental in directing the mission centers activities to mitigate threats of security in the Homeland. The intelligence from the Office of Intelligence and Analysis ensures that the counterintelligence, counterterrorism, cyber, transnational organized crimes, and the economic security threats are neutralized proactively which is critical towards preventing potential successful attacks (Gaines & Kappeler, 2019). One of the significant strength of the DHS is that the Office of Intelligence and Analysis ensures that there is a multidirectional information exchange capacity with state, local and the territorial agencies as well as the private sector and the foreign organizations that are partners which is instrumental in creating an integrated intelligence-driven decisions at the DHS and also by other United States agencies and the partners. The DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis ensures that the existing intelligence gaps are covered an aspect which is instrumental towards promoting domestic proactive security decisions. The unique information provided by the DHS on immigration and cyber activities through the Science and Technology Directorate has helped ensure a competitive advantage for the security apparatus.

The existence of the mission centers under the Office of Intelligence and Analysis ensures that significant security threats such as terrorism, cyber-attacks, economic crimes, and transnational organized crimes are given dedicated resources, which is instrumental towards the overall DHS success in ensuring domestic security (Fitzpatrick, 2015). The counterintelligence, emerging crimes, cyber, counterterrorism, economic security, and the transnational organized crime department is instrumental towards ensuring a coordinated approach to essential areas that are a threat to security and also dedicating resources which helps ensure the overall intelligence capacity and integration in decision making at the other levels of DHS and other external agencies and partners (Gaines & Kappeler, 2019).

Limitations of the Department of Homeland Security Intelligence Capacity

The ever-changing nature of the crimes and focus poses a significant limitation in ensuring domestic security. Security threats internally are difficult to predict due to the participation of the locals who do not have a unique identifiable trait to set them apart from the rest of the American society (Gaines & Kappeler, 2019). Gathering domestic intelligence is a difficult task due to limitations such as the willingness of the local people to share information and the vast nature of the area to be covered. Privacy and civil rights regulations are instrumental limitations that affect the intelligence agencies and operations of the DHS. The existence of privacy and civil rights oversight means that the organization is limited in terms of the information it can collect and analyze which makes it easy for criminals to get away with crimes or delayed intelligence due to the need to establish a warrant to be able to access certain information protected by the civil right liberties. The potential of violating people's civil liberties are amongst the operational limitations facing the DHS (Monahan & Palmer, 2009).

Clear roles and responsibilities play an instrumental role in the success of any public intelligence organization, especially when it incorporates multiple organizations. The DHS is made by multiple agencies and partner organizations which operate simultaneously and sometimes collaborate to ensure that field agents and decision-makers have all the desired information to be able to make information-based decisions (Gaines & Kappeler, 2019). There are significant gaps in the DHS national strategy despite its sole responsibility of securing the Homeland. The national strategy for DHS does not articulate ideas, concise plan, and specific missions for the agencies that have been absorbed by the DHS, which poses a significant operation challenge and conflicts of responsibilities. The existence of uncertainty in the roles of the individual agencies that have been absorbed into the DHS as well as the role of the local and state governments poses a significant operation challenge (Monahan & Palmer, 2009). Therefore, deficiencies of internal control due to the existence of many agencies and roles makes it difficult for the DHS to attain reliable and on-time decisions to realize its mission. Internal control to be effective it should provide greater integrated management for reliable compliance, accountability, and efficient operations.

Another challenge facing the DHS is the emergence of homegrown terrorists who are difficult to label and identify. The homegrown terrorists are difficult for the DHS to identify before they commit crimes as well as the emerging gun violence problem, which does not have a pattern for the DHS to follow and build on intelligence (Dahl, 2015). The homegrown terrorists are incredibly crafty, and they can camouflage well into the population, making it difficult for the DHS to identify them and establish proactive measures directly. On the other hand, the proliferation of communication encryption technologies makes it difficult for the DHS to maintain intelligence information due to the ability of cybercriminals such as hackers to access classified information, which denies the DHS the element of surprise against their targets (Perlroth, 2017).

Do you feel that the U.S. is appropriately structured and resourced to adequately provide timely, accurate, and actionable domestic intelligence to support the entire spectrum of intelligence users (customers) from the Federal government down to state and local agencies (both now and into the future)?

The DHS is well structured to provide for the domestic intelligence needs due to its local, state, and territorial presence as well as the ability to collaborate and share information with both the local and the external partners (Gaines & Kappeler, 2019). The fusion centers and need-based agencies under the DHS creates an integrated structure capable of addressing all its information needs.

The Fusion Centers

The fusion centers have been instrumental in integrating local DHS intelligence efforts, which has made them an integral aspect of the DHS mission. The fusion centers play a common role in gathering, receiving, analyzing, and sharing information about threats within their respective regions (Monahan, 2010). Fusion centers offer a variety of analytical information from terrorist threats to natural disasters, which has made them an integral backbone of the DHS and can help it attain its mission to protect the Homeland. The fusion centers which existed before the 9/11 attacks play an instrumental role in information sharing efforts of the DHS in their respective areas.

Evolving DHS Principles

Principles play an instrumental role in the attainment of the DHS mission. The DHS is established upon five basic principles that help ensure its structural competence and success. The DHS's fundamental principle ensures that it can understand and adapt to the changing threat environment. This principle is instrumental in increasing the DHS scope and capacity with the changing nature of threats. Besides, innovative responses to new threats such as cyber threats and homegrown terrorists are instrumental in attaining the DHS mission (Perlroth, 2017). The second principle focuses on the ability of the DHS to understand the positive and negative uses of technology, which makes it possible to understand the different facets of technology and how to create resilient measures in the mission of securing the Homeland. The third principle establishes the importance of collaboration as a tool for enormous potential and capability for intelligence and information sharing (Monahan, 2010). Collaboration facilitates capacity building, which continuously expands the DHS scope in protecting the Homeland by leveraging internal and external partner's resources and assets. Lastly, DHS promotes local solutions and upholds individual rights such as privacy, civil liberties, and rights, which has been instrumental in ensuring that the DHS is aligned to the constitutional principles and makes its activities relevant.

Conclusion

The DHS has been instrumental in securing the Homeland through its ability to collect and actualize different types of intelligence. The DHS is an umbrella of many agencies and organizations and partners with domestic and external entities to ensure that security decisions from the local to the national level are based on existing knowledge or intelligence. The DHS principles and structure, such as the existence of the fusion centers, has been instrumental in helping it cover a greater area and facilitate a streamlined national source of information.

References

Dahl, E. J. (2015). A Homeland Security net assessment needed...