FINAL REPORT: Information Sharing Across Emergency Management Disciplines
Joseph W. Trindal
February 23, 2012
Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, great strides have been made to share information across disciplines, but gaps still remain. Timely, actionable information is needed to effectively protect against and respond to future attacks. This report discusses a multi-discipline, “need-to-share” approach, which includes sharing information within and between communities.
Addiction in Emergency Services: Coworkers Help, Denial Hurts
Victor Welzant
February 22, 2012
Major stress and constant pressure are all part of the job for emergency-services personnel and
other responders. A less obvious but greater danger is caused by drug and alcohol addictions.
Professional help is available, but not always wanted. What is most needed, and in the long term most
effective, is an all-hands alert to recognize the addiction earlier, provide the help needed, and avoid
being judgmental.
IT and the New Fight Against Drug Trafficking & Gangs
Rodrigo (Roddy) Moscoso
February 22, 2012
Tighter laws, high-tech data systems, and considerable operational experience are making it “easier” for law enforcement agencies at all levels of government to fight the unprecedented growth of drug trafficking that is now a major danger in neighborhoods throughout the country. The winner of that fight has yet to be determined.
Forensic Incident Responses & Security Preparedness
Dawn R. Blanche
February 22, 2012
Eight “Centers of Excellence” established; a massive international “Challenge” competition; and a stunning, rapidly expanding, interest in the once arcane science and profession of digital forensics and various related fields. Those are but a few of the notable DC3 accomplishments achieved to date, but additional domains and designations are just over the horizon.
Drug Traffickers, Insurgents & Safe Havens – Lessons Learned from Plan Colombia
Mark Coomer
February 15, 2012
Plan Colombia was first proposed in 1999 during a hastily called press conference outside the Old Executive Office Building, just west of the White House. āDrug Czarā General Barry McCaffrey,
The Most Dangerous Existential Threat: Illegal Drugs
H. Steven Blum
February 15, 2012
The flow of illegal drugs from Mexico into the United States is not a mere “problem” that affects only a few U.S. states along the U.S.-Mexico border, but rather a major national-security threat. Here, a former chief of the U.S. National Guard spells out the complicated details of this clear and present “existential threat,” and his recommendations on what should and must be done about it.
NIMS/ICS and Drug-Enforcement Operations – Yes and No
Stephen Grainer
February 15, 2012
Drug trafficking throughout the United States has become such an omnipresent danger that it can be diminished and eventually defeated only by the combined efforts of law-enforcement and intelligence agencies at all levels of government – local, state, and federal. Here, with the names of specific sources necessarily withheld, is a true “Insider’s Report” related to the quasi-military federal command, organizational and operational processes, and legal principles that are necessarily involved.
Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, USA (Ret.), Discussion Centered on the Nation’s Drug Threat
Domestic Preparedness
February 15, 2012
“Illegal drugs and their second- and third-order effects present what could arguably be the most dangerous and clear existential threat to the American people – more than any other horrific, catastrophic threat. With the ability to touch every citizen, reach every family, and affect every household, no one is completely immune, protected, insulated, or isolated from the effects of this scourge on society.
The ‘Big Business’ of Drug Smuggling
Lawrence O'Connell and MIchael Brewer
February 8, 2012
The U.S. Coast Guard and DHS’s Customs & Border Protection Agency have achieved some remarkable interdiction successes in recent years, but so have drug smugglers and cartels. New approaches, tactics, and equipment are needed – along with additional personnel – to achieve a more effective long-term solution to what is now a clear and present danger not only to addicts but to all Americans.
PTSD: The Front Lines of a New Conflict
Kate Rosenblatt
February 8, 2012
The “save rate” of military personnel wounded in battle used to be extremely low. Now it is much higher, thanks in large part to better medicine and improved medical transport (ambulances and helicopters, primarily). However, one unanticipated result has been a huge increase in the survival of personnel suffering from brain injuries – and that situation represents a challenge not just to the wounded veterans, but to all Americans.
