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Photo by Todd Cheney
UCLA Photo
John Miller, LAPD's crisis management chief, warned that
Los Angeles "remains on the target list." |
Mobilizing Community Volunteers
Experts evaluate homeland security
BY STAN PAUL
UCLA Today
When New York City and the Pentagon were attacked on Sept. 11,
2001, many Americans thought back to Pearl Harbor, a day of infamy
recalled annually on Dec. 7. It was, therefore, no coincidence that
this past Dec. 7, lawmakers in Washington pushed for the passage
of a new intelligence bill aimed at drastically overhauling the
nation’s security apparatus.
Locally on Dec. 7, a conference on homeland security was held at
UCLA, bringing together experts from national, state, regional and
local levels. Convened by the School of Public Affairs and the Southern
California Association of Governments, the conference, “Homeland
Security: What Next? An Assessment of Local, State and National
Preparedness,” provided a critical look at the nation’s
overall security preparedness.
On Sept. 11, said John Miller, chief of the LAPD’s Critical
Incident Management Bureau (CIMB), “the invulnerable became
the vulnerable.” So shocking and tragic was the 9/11 attack
that “we talk about it every day,” he said. And for
good reason. The United States presents numerous soft targets to
terrorists who look for weaknesses and opportunities to cause large-scale
destruction and bloodshed with the same doggedness that helped them
bring down the World Trade Center, warned Miller. “L.A. remains
on the target list one way or another,” he said, showing video
footage of the training and surveillance conducted by Al Qaeda operatives.
Randolph Hall, professor and co-director of the USC Center for
Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, told attendees that
his group is using various tools to examine key issues of homeland
security, such as “Where can we get the biggest bang for our
buck?” The question is of critical importance because complete
protection from terrorism is unrealistic, but, as Hall put it, there
are, in fact, numerous areas where we can actually be secure.
Several panelists proposed strategies on how to engage communities
and get people talking to each other and paying attention to their
surroundings. “Any one of us may be that first responder,”
pointed out Constance Perett, administrator for the Los Angeles
County Office of Emergency Management.
Alan Toy, associate director of the Center for Neighborhood Knowledge
at the School of Public Affairs, presided over the launch of an
interactive Web site, ePrepared.org,
a resource for both volunteers and agencies to pool information
on emergency-related volunteer opportunities and training, as well
as a way for agencies to better organize volunteer efforts.
In past crises, the community’s volunteer spirit has been
strong, observed Mark Leap, LAPD commander and CIMB’s assistant
commanding officer. Still, unless communities are properly organized
to meet threats, problems can result, he said. In this context,
Toy explained that one of the goals of the new Web site was to recruit
“well-managed volunteers” who have the skills and training
necessary to cope with a crisis.
Chancellor Albert Carnesale delivered a keynote address on the
current state of nuclear weapons worldwide. The chancellor assessed
various nuclear threats to international security, particularly
from North Korea and Iran, noting that the continuing spread of
nuclear power technologies was another key challenge. While containing
the spread of nuclear weapons is a most urgent priority, said Carnesale,
“this is not a hopeless problem.” (For more on these
issues, see the chancellor’s opinion piece on page 7.)
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