You will develop a formal information paper that addresses the legal basis of current Department of Homeland Security jurisdiction, mission, and responsibilities. You will need to specifically analyze hazards, to include manmade or technological and naturally occurring hazards, and terrorism, domestic and foreign, in the information paper.

You are an action officer in your local jurisdiction’s Office of Homeland Security. This is a recently created office. As a medium-size jurisdiction, the city manager’s office has dual responsibilities in many of the leadership and management positions. This is often referred to as being dual-hatted. The chief of police has been assigned as the director of the Office of Homeland Security for the city. She has no prior experience or knowledge of the requirements involved in homeland security and has asked you to provide a formal report on the topic. The chief intends to share this report with other office managers, city department heads, the city manager, and the elected officials of the city (mayor and city council).

Your report is an information paper and should be formatted as such. The report should address the following items:

• The legal basis of current Department of Homeland Security jurisdiction, mission, and responsibilities
• Legal definitions of hazards, to include manmade or technological and naturally occurring hazards
• Legal definitions of terrorism, domestic and foreign
• Review of state law and statutes (using your home or residency state) as it applies to hazards
• Review of state law and statutes (using your home or residency state) as it applies to terrorism
• Summarize your top 5 key points
• Provide any recommendations that you may have to your city’s leadership concerning homeland security issues
• Reference all source material and citations using APA 6th edition

Instructions:

Model Answer

This is the students’ first attempt (Remember this is your “first attempt,” so please do not tell me that you have never done it this way before.) at providing professional-level information and decision support documents. The writing style, writing mechanics, format, and content are key elements for grading and preparing the student for entry into the homeland security profession. Grading feedback to the student that addresses each of these areas is critical for student success and professional preparation and education.

The students provide a document that includes the following: Cover/title page, executive summary (this is the Abstract), table of contents (use the TOC tool to generate the TOC), purpose statement (include this statement in the “introductory paragraph”), background statement (from scenario), topic paragraphs (headed by Level 2 bold subheadings flush left on the page) that address each task requirement to include the student’s analysis, summative paragraph that addresses key findings and any recommendations (include these in the “Conclusion” paragraph of your paper), references, and abbreviations and acronyms definitions (if necessary).

The student’s paper addresses the task specifics with citations to support all statements of fact (note: legal citations are not required but APA 6th edition are the expected requirements). Every in-text citation must have an associated reference entry in the list of References.

The student should demonstrate an extensive research effort that includes federal and state statutes/laws in the references of the paper as well as in-text citations.

Instructor’s Comments:

14 Elements Required for CTU Papers

The examples of papers I give you are all the same, not in the data/words in them but in the 14 “elements” within each example. The elements are those items listed as Level 2 bold subheadings below. For example, you are to follow the form, layout, and format of the example. Follow the instructions to the T that are within the required Template. I will email you the list of these 14 elements.

If you include all of the 14 elements within the required Template, you will do well on these Individual Project (IP) assignments. Follow the instructions to the T. Follow the form, layout, and format to the T. Please do not ignore the instructions. Follow everything to the T.

I have also given you “Example” papers for you to follow. Your assignments should look very similar in form, layout, and format to these example papers.

That is it, students. Follow these instructions and ace all of your papers. You can do it! Dr. Bob Uda