Homeland Security Preparedness

September 11, 2001 or 9/11 has put extra pressures on public officials and their agencies in the United States to prepare for new terrorist threats (Rosenthal, 2003). After 9/11 the idea of homeland security became a part of American thinking and behavior (Beresford, 2004). In this relatively new environment that governments must contend with, it is important to be aware of some issues associated with homeland security preparedness. The traditional distinction among the major sectors of the government has blurred, since the war on terrorism is no longer just the purview of military agencies (Wise and Nader, 2002). In this new environment both civilian and military agencies share the responsibility in protecting the homeland. This chapter attempts to address homeland security preparedness by focusing on city governments examining organizational, collaboration, and management elements of homeland security. The main purpose of this chapter is to set the context of homeland security preparedness. It is vital to know some of the issues that governments face in homeland security in order to understand how Homeland Security Information Systems (HSIS) might be used to address these issues. In order to accomplish this task this chapter first provides background information and an overview of some of the existing homeland security literature in public administration. There is a discussion of the research methods of this article and the results of a homeland security preparedness survey are presented. A conclusion demonstrates the significance of the key findings found in this chapter.