Education | Training

A study by university researchers on terror attacks in the U.S. between 1970 and 2008 found some areas in the U.S. have remained hot spots for the activity.

IQinVision, a supplier of high-performance HD megapixel IP cameras, announced on Jan 18 that the University of Miami in Florida continues to expand its IP video surveillance system by increasing the deployment of IQeye HD megapixel cameras. The University of Miami is a private university with more than 15,000 students.

Minneapolis-based Walden University is offering an online emergency management degree program aimed at developing skills to handle situations from natural disasters to man-made catastrophes to terrorist acts.

Walden University said its new online M.S. in Emergency Management program helps prepare professionals with the advanced skills they need to lead emergency response efforts, improve public policy and protect communities from natural disasters and other hazardous events.

The Security Industry Association (SIA) announced on Jan. 19 that the Securing New Ground Annual Report is now available through the SIA online bookstore.

The Border Patrol convened the 1,000th session of the Border Patrol Academy in New Mexico on Jan. 17.

The new class of 48 men and women from around the nation will receive training at the Border Patrol’s Artesia, NM national academy, said the agency, where they will undergo five months of intense training including instruction in law, immigration, firearms, driving and physical techniques.

The newly-hired agents will begin their career with the Border Patrol as members of Class 1,000, said the agency.

The Science and Technology Directorate at DHS is looking for new members for its science and technology advisory committee, particularly members who could bring expertise in explosives detection and biological defense R&D.

The Directorate announced on Jan. 12 that it wanted to fill “a limited number of positions” on the advisory panel, which provides advice and recommendations to the department’s under secretary of science and technology (currently Tara O'Toole.)

Al Qaeda’s influence on terror plots and attacks in the West isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, said Mitchell Silber, director of intelligence analysis at the New York Police Department, and it’s becoming less evident as time goes on.

The Government Technology & Services Coalition, an organization for small and mid-sized companies in homeland and national security, announced on Jan. 5 a new strategic alliance with The Chertoff Group, a security advisory firm founded by former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, that will provide its coalition members with additional resources to enable them to better understand and grow in the federal security market.

With the emergence of homeland security (HS) as a field of public policy in the immediate post-9/11 period, there arose a commensurate need to educate HS professionals. In trying to design programs that were relevant and appropriate, universities had to try to determine the boundaries of the field and identify the body of scholarship that made up the discipline. The result was a plethora of programs with different emphases and perspectives as to what makes up the discipline.

HS as a practitioner discipline