Helping First Responders & the Public Bring Home Missing Kids | Domestic Preparedness Photo: ©iStock/Rawpixel
Resilience

Helping First Responders & the Public Bring Home Missing Kids

by Michael Breslin & Trish McCall -

An existential danger is the exploitation of children. As the threat landscape evolves, first responders have a paramount role to play in protecting these vulnerable populations and maintaining a resilient homeland security enterprise. One program leading the effort is creating a reason for hope.

 
Resilience

CBRN Response Capabilities and Identified Gaps

by Kenneth Bell -

Despite advancements in field identification and classification of substances with advanced instrumentation and tools, there is still a response gap regarding the proper decontamination of instruments and the people who use them. Take steps now to bridge this gap.

Resilience

Defining Workplace Violence

by Kevin Jones -

History has shown many instances where warning signs were missed before workplace violence occurred. However, understanding the five categories can help organizations and agencies prepare for and, ideally, prevent these types of incidents.

Commentary

Making Planning Documents More Than Words on Paper

by Andrew (Andy) Altizer -

Comprehensive planning documents are vitally important, but they can easily become simple “check-the-box” requirements that result in sizeable unread documents that sit on the shelves. Organizations must take steps to avoid this pitfall.

Preparedness

Keeping Schools Safe During the Threat of Nuclear Attacks

by Tanya Scherr & Dan Scherr -

The hands of the so-called Doomsday Clock are now set to 90 seconds to midnight, reflecting that experts believe the world is closer to a global nuclear catastrophe than it has ever been. All-hazards plans and threat assessments should reflect this potential increased threat.

Healthcare

Challenges With Pediatric Mass Care Feeding

by Michael Prasad & Jennifer Russell -

Infant and toddler life-sustaining feeding during disasters – via human milk and commercial infant formulas – requires a complex set of logistical and operational missions, including federal support and whole-community partnerships. Learn what organizations need to do.

Updates

DHS Announces First Department-wide Policy on Body-Worn Cameras

As required by President Biden’s Executive Order on Advancing Effective, Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety, today Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced the first Department-wide policy on Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs) for its law enforcement officers and agents. The Department’s plan will include a phased implementation of BWCs while working with Congress to secure the necessary funding to equip agents nationwide with BWCs.

TSA is Prepared for High Travel Volumes This Memorial Day Weekend and The Summer Travel Season

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is prepared to screen high volumes of passengers at airport security checkpoints nationwide this summer travel season, which begins Memorial Day weekend and runs through Labor Day. The agency forecasts Friday, May 26, to be the busiest day of the long weekend, projecting to screen approximately 2.6 million passengers.

APHIS Releases New Strategic Plan for 2023-2027

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) published a new 5-year strategic plan. It incorporates input we received from stakeholders on the strategic framework—a summarized version of the plan that we published in June 2022. The plan includes six strategic goals.

DHS and DOJ Finalize Rule to Incentivize Use of Lawful Immigration Pathways

After receiving and considering over 50,000 public comments in response to a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) finalized a new rule to further incentivize individuals to use lawful, safe, and orderly pathways to enter the United States. The rule builds upon efforts to combine lawful pathways with consequences for failure to use them, by placing certain limiting conditions on asylum eligibility for those who fail to use those pathways.

DHS S&T Partners with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to Improve Capabilities of Portable Drug Detection Systems

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) is working with vendors and manufacturers of portable drug detectors to improve their ability to identify different narcotics, like fentanyl. Through collaboration with the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), S&T has offered 12 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) access to collect reference data on 17 commercial-off-the-shelf narcotics detection systems. In return, OEMs will provide an updated version of their libraries to first responders who use their systems.