Homeland Security (HS)

The events of September 11, 2001, including pre-incident and post-occurrence activities, have resulted in the U.S. and other nations re-writing the meaning of national security and the management of reaction to catastrophe. Included in the U.S. response is the creation of a new Cabinet level Department of Homeland Security, built from portions of more than a dozen other agencies and bureaus. This policy-oriented course is designed to examine the largest re-engineering of the U.S. Government since post World War II. The creation of the new bureaucracy responsible for “homeland security” and the impact on the country will be examined from organizational and legal perspectives. Students will examine the impact of these developments on state and local resources committed to “security” in communities and evaluating the strengths—and weaknesses—of the new “homeland security” efforts on the national, state, and local levels.

The course emphasizes the utilization of computer literacy and applications, information requirements, acquisition, analysis, modeling, and data base management; decision support systems and computer software; networking; telecommunications; remote sensing technologies, and other emerging technologies related to criminal justice and homeland security planning and response. Introduces the use of software programs to search for relationships and patterns in data sets, and to calculate the statistics needed to draw interpretations and conclusions in research reports.

Prerequisite(s): HS501 or permission of the program director.

This course focuses on the intersection of strategic plans, incident management, and intelligence analysis to provide the foundation required for terrorism preparedness. Topics covered include infrastructure protection, National Incident Management System, data collection and analysis techniques, threat and vulnerability assessments, information sharing, resource planning, intelligence failures, terrorism prevention, and deterrence.

This course provides an overview of the role of intelligence in government, military and business. Students will be introduced to collection and analysis techniques used by intelligence operatives and analysts. Coursework will include a project that incorporates data-basing, collection planning, organizational and link analysis, and structured analysis techniques. Computer software programs are used to enhance that analytical product.

Prerequisite(s): HS501 or equivalent.