Legal Definitions

You will develop a formal information paper that addresses the legal basis of current Department of Homeland Security jurisdiction, mission, and responsibilities. You will need to specifically analyze hazards, to include manmade or technological and naturally occurring hazards, and terrorism, domestic and foreign, in the information paper.

You are an action officer in your local jurisdiction’s Office of Homeland Security. This is a recently created office. As a medium-size jurisdiction, the city manager’s office has dual responsibilities in many of the leadership and management positions. This is often referred to as being dual-hatted. The chief of police has been assigned as the director of the Office of Homeland Security for the city.

She has no prior experience or knowledge of the requirements involved in homeland security and has asked you to provide a formal report on the topic. The chief intends to share this report with other office managers, city department heads, the city manager, and the elected officials of the city (mayor and city council). 

Your report is an information paper and should be formatted as such. The report should address the following items:

The legal basis of current Department of Homeland Security jurisdiction, mission, and responsibilities 

Legal definitions of hazards, to include manmade or technological and naturally occurring hazards 

Legal definitions of terrorism, domestic and foreign 

Review of state law and statutes (using your home or residency state) as it applies to hazards 

Review of state law and statutes (using your home or residency state) as it applies to terrorism 

Summarize your top 5 key points 

Provide any recommendations that you may have to your city’s leadership concerning homeland security issues 

Reference all source material and citations using APA 6th edition