Measuring the Effectiveness of Border Security Between Ports of Entry
Abstract
Strategic planning is necessary if the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is to carry out its border-security missions effectively and efficiently. As part of that, DHS leadership must define concrete and sensible objectives and measures of success. These can be used to assess results along the way, to guide allocation of resources, and to inform programming and budgeting for future capabilities and functions. The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have each developed measures to support their own operational planning and evaluation processes. Many of these measures are viewed by the DHS components to be useful for these purposes. However, the department is interested in continuing the development of its measures as a way to better inform its decisionmaking processes across the department. For instance, DHS has stated that CBP's measure of "miles of border under effective control" is in need of continued development in order to better evaluate border-security efforts in the land domain (DHS, 2008). USCG, in contrast, evaluates border control in the sea domain by measuring the probability of interdicting drugs and migrants, a method that could also be employed in the land domain. Thus, the DHS Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation asked RAND Corporation for research and recommendations on ways to measure the overall efforts of the national border-security enterprise between ports of entry.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA525290
Entities
People
- Henry H. Willis
- Joel B. Predd
- Paul K. Davis
- Wayne P. Brown
Organizations
- RAND Corporation