Homeland Security
In the year 2011, the US, Department of Homeland Security established National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) with the aim of replacing the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS). This was because arguments and criticism had been raised concerning the effectiveness of HSAS when it comes to states and public terrorism threats and security. It was believed that NTAS was most useful where it would offer timely and detailed information that would enhance the security of the US citizens.
NTAS is one of the terrorism threat advisory scales that was adopted and implemented by the United States Department of Homeland Security in the year 2011 (Homeland Security Act of 2002, 2002). NTAS was established to replace the color-coded HSAS that had attracted heavy criticism. HSAS, on the other hand, was created by President Bush as a response to 11 attacks that were directed at the US. Despite HSAS system being useful when it was implemented concerns has been raised to develop an accurate system that will manage all the flaws identified with HSAS. HSAS was established specifically as an effective means to disseminate information concerning terrorism risks either to the state, public or the local authorities.
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HSAS was established to be highly ineffective because it presented very minimal practical information to the US citizens. NTAS, on the other hand, was believed to be highly effective regarding providing vital; alerts mainly related to a given threat within a given defined date. NTAS was implemented as a system built on a very clear, vivid and simple premise stating that when any form of threat emerges especially those that are believed to be serious and has the potential of impacting the nation and its citizens. Using NTAS, the public will be in a better position to be informed of what exactly they should do to protect themselves together with their families. According to U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2013), the weakness of the HSAS system was that the government action that might have been triggered by any risk was not communicated to the general public rather; the state offered a general guidance aimed for the federal and the civilians.
HSAS being a five-level color system was massively criticized for various reasons such as it was believed to be vague and highly ineffective. The color-coded was believed to be ineffective because rather than alerting the public it scared them where it failed to inform them on what they should do to be safe. The actions taken entailed increasing the number of police to enhance security especially at the landmarks and the rest of likely targets such borders and entry point. Unlike in the NTAS, some of the actions that were taken to counter the security threats in the US were considered to be highly illegal when focusing on the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution. On the one hand, studies have pointed out that NTAS is highly supported and appreciated by the public but ion the other hand, HSAS was argued to be very unclear and further, it did not attract any form, of public support (U.S. Department of Homeland Security Information Sharing Governance Board, 2008).
Within NTAS, it was established that the alerts will accurately be issued on the elevated level, intermediate level in addition to intermediate category (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2014). This was thus believed to be a very effective and highly reliable system to determine the accuracy of the threat level. HSAS has been criticized for using an objective criterion of threat levels implying there existed no efficient and credible way to tell the level of accuracy of a threat. Focusing on its threat level, green implied low risk while Blue indicated overall risk.
In conclusion, the essay has identified several similarities and differences between NTAS and HAS focusing on the strengths and weakness of the system. The two systems were established to enhance security level in the US especially those associated with terrorism threat.
References
Homeland Security Act of 2002. (2002). Pub. L. No. 107-296, 116 Stat . 2135. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/hr_5005_enr.pdf.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Information Sharing Governance Board. (2008). DHS Strategy for Information Sharing . Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/dhs_information_sharing_strategy.pdf
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2013). NIPP Partnering for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience . Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/NIPP%202013_Partnering%20for%20 Critical%20Infrastructure%20Security%20and%20Resilience_508_0.pdf
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. (2014). Quadrennial Homeland Security Review. Retrieved from http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/qhsr/2014-QHSR.pdf.
