In the enabling legislation that created DHS, the role of the Private Sector Office and its leader is one of the first things mentioned after the creation of the Office of the Secretary. For as much as there is to debate about DHS’ creation, its makers understood very early on that anything and everything the department did was going to have some impact in cost or action upon the private sector. The Private Sector Office was meant to be the open door to allow for cooperation between the department and the private sector. To the credit of Secretaries Ridge and Chertoff, it was able to do that on many things, but the record here under Secretary Napolitano is wanting.

To the credit of many of the Department’s components, it started to see the value added of having a focused section of its own operations to engage the private sector on mission specific areas. Nowhere has there been greater success in these areas than at FEMA, which established its own Private Sector Office in 2007. Regardless of establishing similar internal offices at DHS components, there is still much the department can be doing in these areas that it is not. Photo ops and punched travel tickets may be metrics of success to some, but action and engagement on their issues are the metrics the private sector is seeking, and none right now are obvious. That needs to change.

The best friend/game changer that the department has with respect to addressing, responding to and recovering from all of the risks, threats and challenges it has to mitigate against is the private sector. As such the private sector needs to have more visibility and commitment from the front office than in the current state of affairs.

 

Reach out to Bloggers and Respect Your Critics as Well as the Media

As accomplished and revolutionary as the Obama Campaign operations have been in the use of digital and social media in targeting voters, responding to the opposition and getting their messages across, those skills and lessons learned never seemed to make their way to DHS in its Public Affairs operations. While the department’s website has been revamped and it has added some informative features describing the department’s functions, when it comes to engaging the blogosphere, or for that matter the department’s critics, DHS has been mute. Nowhere has this circumstance been more apparent than in the controversial purchases of ammunition for the department’s law enforcement functions. When the story first appeared on various blog sites, the department ignored it. When the story started to pick up steam and be shared with more prominent media outlets, (e.g. Drudge Report, CNN, Fox, etc.), along with more cited reference material detailing the procurements/purchases to back the initial story up, DHS continued to ignore it. Even initial Congressional inquiries were blown off. Not until Congress moved to take action and block any additional purchases of ammunition by the department did the leadership feel it was time address the questions raised by the initial reports.

In a politically polarized country, with extremes at either end of the political spectrum that see conspiracy, intrigue and civil rights threats in every motive and action, ignoring a story related to guns and ammunition is not a wise move. As a result, distrust, as well as the creation of enhanced urban legends of black van-riding agents ready to put down American unrest or the threatened zombie apocalypse are allowed to take root and fester. I don’t know who benefits from such behavior (except for maybe the zombies), but it was not the department.

One way DHS could deal with these circumstances is to better engage the media as well as bloggers. If you talk to any of the reporters that regularly cover homeland issues, you hear pretty much the same story. Phone calls not being returned; a lack of information being offered; rude behavior when tough questions are asked, and so forth. In short, the people who are charged with engaging the public – and in this case, the media – seem to have no people or media skills. It’s pretty hard to make the department’s case with facts on anything if you don’t reasonably or responsibly engage the people who report on these issues.

New leadership has taken hold of two of the most important Congressional committees with DHS jurisdiction. With Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) taking over the Senate Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) now chairing the House Homeland Security Committee, there is new leadership in the biggest chairs on the Hill on homeland issues. This is a chance for the new secretary to build critical stakeholders for the department’s interests across the board while building their own political capital.

Furthermore, in terms of engaging critics, you only embolden them further if you choose to ignore them completely. That’s one of the reasons that the ammunition purchases story was able to spread across the Internet in reasonable and unreasonable outlets. Regular meetings with bloggers, including those favorable to and those critical of the department as well as regular beat reporters, would help the secretary, the department’s leadership, and its respective public affairs operations understand what people are saying; what is accurate or inaccurate about what is being said; and how you as the department’s leader can deliver the messages that need to be heard loud and clear.