(Combating Terrorism: FEMA Continues to Make Progress in Coordinating Preparedness and Response: Participation in Interagency and Intra-agency Groups and Committees) CIMS: The Office of Emergency Management --OEM who has been collaborating with NYPD & FDNY and other City agencies to develop the CIMS, the adoption of which was declared by Mayor Bloomberg in March, 2004. CIMS makes a uniform incident management structure for every City agency that is broadly based on the Incident Command System model. The setting up of CIMS ensures a system for management of emergencies with a universal understanding of terminologies and roles and responsibilities among all agencies. CIMS makes use of the combined lead agency/unified operations section. In case of the majority of the incidents where multiple agencies are needed to act on several emergency situations, a unified operations post is made. The core competencies of the primary agencies will establish command of authority for immediate decision-making and will constitute the basis for pre-implementation training. Currently, with the introduction of CIMS, New York City -- NYC has an Incident Management System in place which fulfils every federal mandate. Even though the complete implementation of this type of system will take sufficient time and proper training, introduction of CIMS in NYC marks an epoch making step in improvement of the City's capability to react to and recover from every category of emergency. (New York City Office of Emergency Management)

NYPD: Due to presence of NYPD, NYC has witnessed a large-scale reduction in the amount of crime. Whereas a lot of theories abound attributing the reduction in the city and nation's crime rate, several people credit the NYPD's CompStat or Computerized Database of Crime Statistics for this achievement. COMPSTAT helps the Department in understanding the locations where the majority of crimes take place and this assists them to devote more resources to that area. (New York City Police Department) NYPD has launched a new program for combating terrorism- the NYPD Shield. This is a blanket program for a chain of current and forthcoming Police Department's endeavor involving private sector security and counter terrorism. This effort is a joint partnership between the public and private based on extending the best practices, experiences achieved, counter-terrorism opportunities and sharing of information. NYPD Shield looks forward to collaborate with security managers in the private sector with the objective of safeguarding New York from assaults by the terrorists. (NYPD Shield: Public-private Sector Security Partnership)

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, NYPD has redesigned its mission to include counter terrorism and safeguarding of critical infrastructure. NYPD practically finds out and evaluates the sites and targets in NYC which are most susceptible to a terrorist onslaught. It also collaborates with important private and legal-enforcement employees for safeguarding the assets of the City. The NYPD Counter Terrorism Division's Threat Reduction and Infrastructure Protection Section -- TRIPS is in charge of supervision of private sector consultations and evaluation of threats for possible terrorist's targets. TRIPS were introduced during the spring of 2002 with a view to create a competence in protection of infrastructure protection and physical security. (Counter Terrorism: NYPD Shield Security Information)

3) Summarization and Discussion of 3 cases of Homeland Defense Issues:

FEMA: As regards policy and practice, FEMA has normally tackled the important lessons learned from its experience while coordinating federal consequence management activities following the Oklahoma City bombings. After evaluating the lessons learned following the bombings, FEMA identified three important actions which were needed to be taken up. (i) Make guidance to help agencies synchronized reaction to incidents by the terrorists (ii) make sure that state and local emergency plans are identical to the Federal Response Plan and (iii) set up an sufficient number of emergency response teams to handle incidents mass casualties. There has been massive improvement in these spheres. FEMA has updated the Federal Response Plan to handle the manner in which federal agencies, states and communities would collaborate to react to acts of terrorism and state are more and more typifying their emergency operations plans on the federal plans. On the top of it, the number of teams available for emergency response to tackle cases of large-scale casualties has gone up more than two times since 1995. FEMA has also augmented terrorism preparedness training grants and included terrorism in a systematic manner into its emergency management curriculum. (Combating Terrorism: FEMA Continues to Make Progress in Coordinating Preparedness and Response: Participation in Interagency and Intra-agency...

FEMA also involves itself in several exercises and special events devised to improve upon the security of domestic events. The principal mechanism for testing the plan of the states in by way of exercises, several of which FEMA participates in funding. For instance from 1996 till 2000, FEMA sponsored 22 of the 28 terrorism preparedness exercises that took place in Washington state. It is through collaborative efforts of FEMA and those of other agencies, the types, numbers, and intricacy of terrorism preparedness exercises have risen considerably. Besides, the terrorism preparedness of the states are coming of age and they are close to reflecting the awareness if federal and states roles in terrorism preparedness and response. (Combating Terrorism: FEMA Continues to Make Progress in Coordinating Preparedness and Response: Participation in Interagency and Intra-agency Groups and Committees)
CIMS: The emergency response plan was adopted by NYC under CIMS which needed a joint operations between the police and fire departments instead of a unified command which received enough criticism by the 9/11 commission. The authority of the CIMS was transferred away from the Fire and Police Department. In place of awarding the Police with the task for responding to crime scenes and giving fire with the duty for commanding response operations, CIMS permits the NYPD to render the initial determination if a hazardous material is considered a crime or terrorism. (Public Safety: Battle of the Badges)

NYPD: In a major breakthrough, NYPD has unraveled the secrets of the July 7 London bombings. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly cautioned that the substances used in the London attacks could be adaptable to NYC with ease. In the first place it was believed that the materials consisted of superior grade military explosives that might have been secretly taken away, but it was revealed that the attackers collected it from a hardware store or a beauty supply store, as the material was just ordinary hydrogen peroxide. It was revealed by the NYPD officials that the investigators believe that the bomb attackers used a peroxide-based explosive known as HMDT or hexmethylene triperoxide diamine which can be prepared using ordinary ingredients such as hydrogen peroxide found in hair bleach, citric acid which is a common food preservative and heat tablets used by military people for cooking purposes. Among the other details pointed out by the NYPD officials are (i) The bombers took the explosives in beverage coolers hidden inside the back of two cars to the countryside of the London (ii) Investigators think the three bombs which blasted in the subway were detonated by cell phones with alarm settings (iii) Such types of explosive compounds were utilized during the attempted attack in London on July 21. (NYPD officials reveal details of London Bombings)

4) Core Values:- a. What are the Core Values of each of your agencies?

FEMA: FEMA is guided by 10 core values which not just guide the Agency but also every individual functioning within the agency. These are (i) Accountability: Individual accountability for the decisions and the results while acknowledging mistakes and attempting to rectify these mistakes. (ii) Compassion: Expressing concern to the customers and also among each other in the hour of need. (iii) Customer Focus: Seeing to it that customers and their needs become the primary main concern (iv) Diversity: Enriching the work environment at FEMA and also the capability to perform through multiplicity in backgrounds, experience, skills, and respect for those differences. (v) Innovation: Looking for creative and novel ways to deliver in a better manner the services of FEMA and meet the challenges that might arise. (vi) Integrity: Observing the highest ethical standards and being honest with the customers and colleagues. (vii) Partnership: Working jointly manner with the external partners in a collaborative manner and also with one another to accomplish the common goals. (viii) Public Stewardship: Managing the resources carefully and extending the highest quality of service. (ix) Respect: Hearing the problems and treating the customers and colleagues with dignity. (x) Trust: Mutual dependence between themselves and also the external partners to act in the best interest of the customers and earning that confidence through their behavior. (A Nation Prepared FEMA Strategic Plan 2003-08)

CIMS: The mission statement of CIMS are (i) Expanding the present system which functions well on a daily basis (ii) Acknowledging the capability for terrorism in CBRN incidents and assign specific responsibilities in case of primary agencies…