Document Actions
The Low Down on Top Off - July 9, 2009 #202
By Dr Dave McIntyre, Director Integrative Center for Homeland Security, 09 July 2009
Since the year 2000, the United States has held a series of major terrorism exercises called TOP OFF. The idea is to pick one or more cities for refresher training, and then exercise response and recovery from the federal government level, down through the state and local levels, all the way to private industry. And most importantly, the exercises incorporate top officials at each of these levels. Hence the name. But despite spending millions of dollars on TOP OFF over eight years, it turns out we have learned a lot less than we thought. I will tell you more if you will give me Just a Minute for Homeland Security.
I’m Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M
Recently the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security took a close look at lessons learned from the TOP OFF exercises. Their conclusions are not encouraging.
First, in fairness, TOPOFF was established by law in 1998 before there was a Department of Homeland Security. Back then, responsibility for terrorism attacks and exercises belonged to the Department of Justice. DOJ remained responsible for TOPOFF until the two year old DHS took over the third exercise in April 2005. This was just as the new boss, Secretary Chetroff, arrived to reorganize DHS. Then Hurricane Katria turned the Department upside down again. And another year passed before Congress finally required that TOPOFF lessons be collected and shared. That requirement from 2007 remains unmet.
So while the “New FEMA” should get credit for trying to sort out the mess, the truth is that bureaucrats have been kicking the ball around under the table for nearly a decade, while the lessons learned from millions of dollars worth of exercises went . . . well . . . unlearned.
But even if the lessons had been collected, the IG report concludes that the value of TOPOFF exercises was limited because Top Officials rarely played. From mayors to CEOs to cabinet officials, the leaders who were supposed to modeling decision making in these expensive exercises generally showed up for a few sessions, then left their roles to lower level staffers. Sometimes they thought they had higher priorities. Sometimes they just did not want to reveal their lack of preparation in public.
Thirdly, according to the IG report, whatever lessons were collected from whatever Top Officials did actually participate, were not properly distributed nation wide.
DHS has promised a plan to remedy shortcomings by the end of July. But the larger question is “how did we come to waste the learning opportunities from these expensive exercises?” And “can we get it right next time?”
This is Dave McIntyre, Director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M, inviting you to join us again next week on Just a Minute . . . for Homeland Security.