By Michael V. Marzal, USCM Intern
September 8, 2003

Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced Sept. 2, plans to "reorganize to better mobilize" the people and resources of the Department of Homeland Security. Secretary Ridge intends on making available more than 5,000 additional federal law enforcement agents in the skies, folding three different border inspection functions into "one face at the border," and consolidating terrorism grant and training programs to one office at the Department of Homeland Security. Secretary Ridge also announced the implementation of the Strategic Communications Resources Effort (SECURE). The purpose of this would be to provide security clearances and secure video and telephone communications to all the states and territories.

Secretary Ridge wants to increase coordination and information sharing between the Federal Air Marshals Service (FAMS) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to allow for a "surge capacity" to respond to specific threats. Secretary Ridge announced that FAMS and the Explosives Unit from the Transportation Security Administration would transfer to ICE thus creating a larger, more efficient Department. Conciliating these Departments will increase the number of federal law enforcement agents for deployment during times of increased threats to aircraft or in the event of a terrorist attack, Ridge said.

In the past, travelers coming the U.S. would stop at an Immigration inspector, a Customs inspector and an Agriculture inspector. The new system announced by Secretary Ridge would consolidate these three inspectors into a One-Stop inspection process. Cross'training Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspectors to perform all three inspection functions would create a more rapid and convenient passage for travelers, while also identifying and addressing potential risks. By using a single employee to perform all primary inspection functions, the Department will be able to deploy additional employees into secondary inspection thus focusing our resources towards travelers with suspicious indicators.

Secretary Ridge stated, "Strong, effective partnerships with state governments often means sharing with state leaders specific, classified information." Ridge said he intends to make this information more readily available to state and local officials to help them prepare for, disrupt and respond to these threats. Sectary Ridge has ordered the implementation of the Strategic Communications Resources (SECURE) initiative; this initiative would make all states Emergency Operations Centers, as well as the District of Columbia. States will now have the capability to communicate through secure videoconferencing and secure telephone lines due to this plan. Details as to how cities would be involved in this effort have not yet been provided.

Local and state governments must have quick and easy access to terrorism and emergency grant programs, announced Secretary Ridge. He intends to improve the partnerships between local and state governments with the federal government by centralizing these programs within a single office. Currently, many of these programs are centered within Homeland Security but they are still divided amongst many components within this Department. State and Local governments will now have a single point of contact for terrorism and emergency preparedness. As part of this package, DHS will also launch a new web portal that will make these grants more accessible by listing all available DHS funding resources thus streamlining the process.