This written assignment is comprised of addressing intelligence related to homeland security and you will develop a research paper on this topic of 5-6 full pages (not counting the title page and refe

So what are the capabilities and limitations of domestic intelligence efforts in supporting the homeland security enterprise? Some framework was altered on Sept. 11. The U.S. intelligence community that primarily focused on state functions now faced a threat posed by evasive terrorists, national and international. The community also had to address the fundamental asymmetry given by the terrorists' use of relatively and unsophisticated unconventional methods to create a loss of life and damage a more sophisticated intelligence task. Moreover, due to terrorist disregard for laws, national borders, and foreign financing, the United States had to change its concept of non-native versus domestic intelligence.

The area of domestic intelligence raises a couple of issues. Firstly, law enforcement and intelligence operations in different society – one seeks to prosecute, the other to gathers information. Secondly, with the development of multiple state fusion centers and the creation of new organizations focused on intelligence, there is a correspondingly high increase in bureaucratization. This very much so adds to the high challenge of sharing information. Lastly and perhaps the most important is that there are some issues concerning the protection of effective oversight and civil liberties.

The challenge in developing a viable national intelligence capability for the United States centers on how to organize these capabilities optimally within the broader United States intelligence framework, how to ensure mainlined information sharing between non-domestic intelligence and the multitude of local and state law enforcement agencies, and how best to implement oversight mechanisms to protect civil liberties and ensure accountability of intelligence operations. Organizational arrangements, information sharing, and oversight are the three critical components to instituting a sufficient domestic intelligence capability.

Inside the Department of Homeland Security alone, there is a departmental office of Intelligence and Analysis and there are intelligence activities within several of the Department's components as well, including the United States Citizenship and immigration service, the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Transportation Security Administration(TSA).

It should also be noted that having an understanding of the intelligence community and local law enforcement and how each relates to Homeland Security is essential and can be gaged by the lessons learned from the 9/11 Commission on intelligence sharing and how those lessons/recommendations were implemented. At the end of the 9/11 Commission Report in Chapter 13, these recommendations were laid out in plain language. These recommendations outlined significant changes in the organization of the government. The recommendations stated that improvement in the "unity of effort" was needed and essential in future collaborative efforts.

Local law enforcement or Intelligence-led policing (ILP) is "a new dimension of community policing, building on tactics and methodologies developed during years of community policing experimentation." (USDOJ, 2014) As outlined in the ILP Guidelines, intelligence-led policing can be useful in combating terrorism in the following key points. Both community policing and ILP rely on information management and information gained from citizens helping define the parameters of community problems; therefore, information input is the essential ingredient for intelligence analysis.

Next, two-way communication with the public as information is sought from the public about offenders. Conversely, communicating critical information to the public aids in crime prevention and fear reduction. In fighting terrorism, in the ILP sense, communications from the public can provide valuable information for the intelligence cycle. When threats are defined with specific details, communicating essential information to the U.S. citizens may help prevent a vulnerable terrorist attack and, like community policing, will reduce fear.

Thirdly, scientific data analysis in community policing uses Crime analysis as a critical ingredient in the process. Conversely using ILP for preventing terror attacks, intelligence analysis is the essential element in threat management.

Lastly, in problem-solving in community policing, it is a problem solving that is used to accommodate community conditions that are precursors to crime and disorder. Conversely in ILP, the same process is used for intelligence to combine factors precedent to a terrorist attack" (USDOJ, 2014) At the State level, there are the State Fusion Centers which" serve as primary focal points within the state and local environment for the receipt, analysis, gathering, and sharing of threat-related information among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) partners.

Located in states and major urban areas throughout the country, fusion centers are uniquely situated to empower front-line law enforcement, public safety, fire service emergency response, public health, critical infrastructure protection, and private sector security personnel to gather and share threat-related information lawfully." (DHS, 2014) The value of State Fusion centers to homeland security is they "provide interdisciplinary expertise and situational awareness to inform decision-making at all levels of government. Fusion centers conduct analysis and facilitate information sharing, assisting law enforcement and homeland security partners in preventing, protecting against, and responding to crime and terrorism." (DHS, 2014)