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Respond to Johnny:

All state and local police organizations should prepare for all hazards is an argument that has two sides to it. First is the idea that police organizations are equipped and funded to respond to all emergencies compared to the federal agencies. Notably the crisis after 9/11 with regarding homeland security and increasing the efforts on the threat of terrorism. Research have suggested that if local law enforcement agencies had made appropriate organizational changes to manage potential terrorist threats the catastrophic events would have been mitigated. Such police and antiterrorism instruments such as the Police Unit Assessment of Terrorism (PAT) Scale, Domestic Unit Assessment of Terrorism (DAT) Scale could be used in order to assess the threat of terrorism (Cree & Bailey, 2011). However the argument of placing additional responsibility with tasking the local law enforcement and police agencies is the fact that it increases the workload which requires additional training, manpower, and resources that may or may not be available to these smaller agencies with their current budget and funding. Although the importance of public safety and national security is high I having the correct personnel, training, funding, and interagency cooperation would be ideal to ensure a higher rate of success in combating terrorism and national security threats that were commonly tasked to federal law enforcement agencies. Meanwhile local law enforcement agencies based in Illinois have undergone their organizations ability to prevent and respond to emergencies while assessing the organizations ability to deal with the incidents which have resulted in local agencies taking a variety of measures to increase emergency preparedness in order to prevent and respond to terrorist incidents. Studies have showed that sampled organizations included first responders, emergency management agencies, public health organizations, and many others within the state of Illinois.

Law enforcement within a study represented between 131 and 252 of the agencies with the results coming back and showing that law enforcement lack updating mutual training, participation in joint training activities, purchasing additional protective equipment, and very few updating of emergency response plans (Giblin, Schafer, & Burruss, 2009). While the threat of chemical or biological attacks are present local law enforcement still have failed to prepare and properly plan for that threat based on a report in 2004 brought forth by South Carolina law enforcement agencies where only 25 percent of the police agencies within the state had a policy addressing the terrorist threats in relation to biological or chemical attacks (Giblin, Schafer, & Burruss, 2009). The idea that local law enforcement should prepare for all emergencies is great in theory however without the support of the federal government or the shared responsibility of joint operations, training, shared understanding of responsibilities, and legislation to hold local agencies accountable would be setting deemed for failure. When dealing with emergencies we need to look at the vulnerabilities, preparedness, and organizational capacity. A police department can take all the preparedness precaution to prevent an incident however without the organizational capacity it is doomed to fail as it does not have the resources available to ensure that the mission requirements can be met to mitigate or prevent that emergency. When looking at the idea that state and local organizations should be prepared for all emergencies I would have to agree however I believe that the Federal government also has a responsibility to assist in the preparation, information sharing, and joint training to ensure the success of the local governments ability to respond to emergencies.

References

Cree, L., & Bailey, A. C. (2011). Terrorism Preparation by Michigan Law Enforcement Agencies. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 434-447.

Giblin, M. J., Schafer, J. A., & Burruss, G. W. (2009). Homeland Security in the Heartland. Southern Illinois University, 274-289.