The Reality of Homeland Security

Time Magazine has an excellent article on the allocation of Homeland Security funds as compared to risk analysis:

International terrorism, as most experts will tell you, is
not as unpredictable as it feels. Terrorists follow patterns. And while
we can't read the minds of zealots, we can get a good idea of what kind
of damage they could do in any given location. We can estimate the cost
of an attack on a port in Los Angeles vs. an attack on a port in Prince
William Sound. We can calculate where a nuclear blast of a given force
would kill 500,000 people as opposed to 50,000. These are the logical
estimates that insurers and investment banks are seeking as they try to
quantify the risk they face. But while all this strategic thinking is
going on in the private sector, the government has responded to
terrorism in a less rational way. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, about
$13.1 billion has surged into state coffers from the Federal
Government�sorely needed money that has gone for police, fire and
emergency services to help finance equipment and training to prevent
and respond to terrorist attacks. That is a 990% increase over the $1.2
billion spent by the Federal Government for similar programs in the
preceding three years. But the vast majority of the $13.1 billion was
distributed with no regard for the threats, vulnerabilities and
potential consequences faced by each region. Of the top 10 states and
districts receiving the most money per capita last year, only the
District of Columbia also appeared on a list of the top 10 most at-risk
places, as calculated by AIR for TIME. In fact, funding appears to be almost inversely proportional to risk.
If all the federal homeland-security grants from last year are added
together, Wyoming received $61 a person while California got just $14,
according to data gathered at TIME's request by the Public Policy
Institute of California, an independent, nonprofit research
organization. Alaska received an impressive $58 a resident, while New
York got less than $25. On and on goes the upside-down math of the new
homeland-security funding.

Posted by flow Frazao on March 22, 2004 at 04:58 PM | Permalink