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June 25th, 2009

In an article in the GSN: Government Security News e-newsletter on June 23, 2009, Rep. John Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) advanced an argument that the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Federal Air Marshal (FAM) program was a failure.

Unfortunately, he used faulty logic and rationale to make his argument, but I agree with Rep. Duncan’s assessment that the FAM service is largely useless, particularly the way the FAMs are being used now. However, I was distressed and appalled at Rep. Duncan's comments because of his obvious lack of understanding about the utility of the Federal Air Marshals, i.e. they are not there to make arrests.

June 24th, 2009

Customer
City of Birmingham, AL

Company
VideoIQ, Inc.

The Problem
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama, boasting a downtown population of nearly 230,000. Like any city, Birmingham has its share of crime and vandalism. To help combat this, the city had intelligent video surveillance cameras from VideoIQ installed to efficiently and cost-effectively increase safety and security for residents and visitors.

June 23rd, 2009

[Remarks delivered on the House floor on June 19, 2009.]

Probably the most needless, useless agency in the entire Federal Government is the Air Marshal Service.

In the Homeland Security Appropriations bill we will take up next week, we will appropriate $860 million for this needless, useless agency. This money is a total waste: $860 million for people to sit on airplanes and simply fly back and forth, back and forth. What a cushy, easy job.

June 22nd, 2009

In the last column, we explored the trend in law enforcement to establish information management systems that can mine existing data repositories they have been populating for many years. This comes after many agencies sought to establish new data repositories in the wake of 9/11.

Now, let’s continue our discussion about how fusion centers can best serve data sharing needs.

A fusion center is only as valuable as the information to which it has access. Getting the building blocks in place and tracking new information are important steps, but integrating data and mining existing information for patterns of criminal behavior are of paramount importance.

May 29th, 2009

San Luis Potosí government officials take the safety of its citizens seriously. San Luis Potosí is the capital city of the state of San Luis Potosí in North Central Mexico. The city covers an area of about 385 square kilometers, approximately the size of Seattle, WA, and has a population of more than 800,000. In 2008, city officials decided that San Luis Potosí needed a technology solution to augment existing public safety resources and better protect citizens from crime.

After reviewing a number of surveillance options, San Luis Potosí officials chose to install a wireless mesh camera network throughout the city. “Video surveillance uses cameras to monitor public areas and video analytics to properly administer and analyze digital and analog footage, aiding police and emergency responder reaction,” explained Guillermo Dávila, applications marketing manager for Sony Mexico. The city will eventually have almost 200 cameras strategically placed to deter and address crime.

March 24th, 2009

Shortly after 9/11, at the 2003 National Cyber Security Summit, Tom Ridge, then Secretary of Homeland Security, underscored the fact that the security of our nation’s critical infrastructures could not be achieved without public education campaigns and public-private partnerships. Ridge further noted that, “the federal government can’t succeed in these efforts alone.”

Since that time, these words have resonated as an ideal rather than a reality. As the new Obama administration moves to enhance cyber-security, revising critical infrastructure protection mandates from voluntary to mandatory status, the concept of public and private sector collaboration is at the forefront once again.

June 23rd, 2008

For most of a decade, the federal approach to protecting critical infrastructure was almost entirely voluntary. It is now clear that last year’s legislation to implement recommendations of the 9/11 Commission – H.R. 1 – marked a philosophical turning point toward regulation.

May 5th, 2008

Defense agencies have long understood the inherent insecurity of trusting supply partners without really knowing who’s at the other end of a transaction. More importantly, they understand that this problem is also pervasive within the agency. Now, with federal mandates like HSPD-12 and FIPS 201, civilian agencies are chartered to overcome the same challenges.

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