Homeland security

The 9/11 attack of New York and Washington DC acted to show the naivety in the homeland security policies and their inefficiency in handling such disasters. After the attack the security organs in the United States and also across the world had to embrace new ideas especially using the most updated technology to ensure that a repeat of the attack would not be witnessed in the near future. This is an involving process and the developments that have been made will be discussed in this work. The attacks were made by air and just as anyone would have expected the initial changes to be made were on air travel. The need for enhanced air security was discussed and the result was the passing of the Aviation and Transport Security Act. This was passed to create transportation security administration. This outsourced to the private stake holders in the field and it was aimed at ensuring that there was a synchronized security system that would not be beaten by terrorists. Passenger and luggage screening was enhanced and made more thorough at the airports to ensure that no weapon goes through unnoticed (Hoover, 2011).
Another notable change was in the government as many organizations sprouted while others reorganized themselves after the scare to be able to handle such cases better in the future (Villemez, 2011). The passing of the Patriot Act was seen as a move to ensure that the people were living harmoniously and therefore preventing a repeat of the attack. In the immigration and tourism sector, a notable change was detected especially with the limiting of Visas given to citizens of various countries (Villemez, 2011). Looking at the changes, it is evident that the attack enhanced the tightening of security in the various dockets that can be used to harbor criminals or let them into the United States.
The security of a countries borders is very important when it comes to the safety of the citizens. It’s through the porous borders that criminals or counterfeit products and illegal goods are smuggled into the country. While dealing or discussing the issue of security it is important to look at the role of technology in ensuring that the borders are not porous and criminals are kept at bay. One of the important things to note is that the borders also act as important economic gateways between the retailers in the neighboring countries. Looking at the United States, the shared border with Canada and Mexico alone is about seven hundred miles (Armstrong, 2011).
Creation of a safer border environment is therefore needed without impacting negatively on the business going on here which employs a huge chunk of the population. To enhance security, the government liaises with CBP border patrols agents as well as marine and air agents who are mandated with the task of ensuring that the borders are safe (Homeland Security, 2013). Their main objective is to curb terrorism by ensuring that the terrorists together with their weapons of destruction do not find their way into the country. Improvement on infrastructure has been done by expanding trusted travel programs and the computerization of the processes involved at the border. These process have been done to ensure that as much as business is promoted, criminals do not use it as a chance in getting their way into the country.
References
Armstrong, C. (2011). Security Issues with U. S. Customs and Border Protection’s Enterprise wireless Infrastructure. Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General.
Available at.
Homeland Security. (2013). Border Security Overview. Available at.
Hoover, J. H. (2011). 7 Key Homeland Security IT Developments since 9/11. Dark Reading. Available at.
Villemez, J. (2011). 9/11 to Now: Ways we have changed. PBS Newshour. Available at.