Funding for First Responders From a Threat and Prevention Approach
Abstract
It has been thirty-three months since the United States was attacked by terrorists on September 11th 2001. Yet, in distributing grants to States and localities to build their capacity for homeland security, the Nation continues to rely on funding formulae that are deeply flawed. Many grants are distributed in ways that ignore need-driven criteria, such as where terrorists are most likely to strike and which targets are most critical. This thesis develops an alternative formula that takes need into account (and therefore is much more likely to send funds where they are required). After reviewing need-driven formulae from a range of fields that might be applied to homeland security, I use the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) to break the objectives of homeland security capacity-building into discreet, measurable components. Then, I analyze the criteria that should be used to build a grant allocation process to accomplish those objectives, including population density, criticality of infrastructure, the threat to a municipality, vulnerability to that threat, and terrorism prevention. The resulting formula is far better structured than the current system to put homeland security grant funds where the Nation most needs them.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA424834
Entities
People
- Michael Weinlein
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School