State Homeland Security Officials Survey

In May 2006 Western Carolina University released the results of a survey of state homeland security officials. Overall, the picture was not too encouraging. A couple of findings that seemed particularly salient:

• The majority of state officials said that DHS directives are not being implemented effectively at the state level.
• Although 88% of state officials say that prevention is the most important priority for the federal government, only 38% say that prevention is the most important priority for state government. At the same time, 73.5% say that prevention is the most difficult task for states to accomplish.

At the very least, it seems like our homeland security priorities and efforts are not being adequately coordinated across the levels of government.