The Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 was issued on February 28, 2003. The primary role was to bolster the ability of the United States to combat domestic incidents by creating a single, holistic management system for national incidents. The directive was issued by the then president, George Bush (Anderson, Compton, & Mason, 2004). The management system would be led by the Secretary of Homeland Security. The management system would then be used for purposes of preventing, preparing, responding, and mitigating emergencies such as terrorist attacks, disasters, and security challenges. Paragraph 15 of the document underscored the primary reason why the directive was formed.
Paragraph 15 speaks about the creation of a National Incident Management System (NIMS). The NIMS would provide all levels of government with a platform to work effectively and efficiently towards managing and responding to domestic issues. The federal, state and local governments would use the interoperability features of the system to allow sharing of information and setting up a single command center. The NIMS has also bolstered multi-agency coordination and training of the relevant authorities tasked with responding to the emergency situations (Wise, 2006). The directive also ensured that all domestic issues were responded with a sense of consistency.
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It is almost two decades since the directive was implemented. During this period, the United States has faced a plethora of domestic issues and threats such as disasters, fires, hurricanes, and minor security problems. The use of the NIMS has played a crucial role, especially in enhancing coordination in multi-agency operations. Previously, operations requiring several agencies were marred with confusions and insubordinations which led to massive failures. However, thanks to the NIMS, the security and disaster management authorities can have a unified control system with a single source of instruction (Chen et al., 2008). I think that we the reduced casualties reported in every major disaster and security issue, the fruits of directive 5 continue to be enjoyed today.
References
Anderson, A. I., Compton, D., & Mason, T. (2004). Managing in a dangerous world—The national incident management system. Engineering Management Journal, 16(4), 3-9.
Chen, R., Sharman, R., Rao, H. R., & Upadhyaya, S. J. (2008). Coordination in emergency response management. Communications of the ACM, 51(5), 66.
Wise, C. R. (2006). Organizing for homeland security after Katrina: Is adaptive management what’s missing? Public Administration Review, 66(3), 302-318.
