One of the biggest problems with interagency communication is the computer technologies between agencies. Essentially, they do not coordinate because each agency uses different computer technologies. Author Ranum continues, "That's how the federal government's computer systems became an incompatible mess: Each agency does its own product selection, and no effort is made to coordinate" (Ranum, 2004, p. 171). Even today, Homeland Security cannot coordinate the computers of all the agencies it oversees, and this is a huge barrier to sharing information and intelligence, and it puts the country and her people at risk.
Clearly, communication is a key element of keeping the country safe. Not only is it important between agencies, it is incredibly important for the first responders on the scene of a homeland security incident. For example, during the 9/11 attacks, firefighters, medical personnel, and police could not pick up each other's radio frequencies,...
171). They also could not communicate with the military. While some of these communication issues have been addressed, there are still many more that need to be addressed for the department to really be able to operate effectively and keep the nation secure.
In conclusion, any agency or department is subject to communications problems, but because Homeland Security is so broad, it has more issues to address and more issues to fix. They need to coordinate their communications between departments, they need to coordinate computers and the information they share, and they need to ensure that intelligence is communicated, too. They still have a big job to totally fix their communication problems.
References
Huang, M.P. (2007). After reorganization: A leadership journey. The Public Manager, 36(1), 67+.
Ranum,…
