By Faylin Mutch, American Military University
Efforts to bolster local government efficiency and effectiveness often benefits from a multi-lateral and multi-agency approach. Such an approach has been helpful in many disciplines, including intelligence analysis and public safety. It has also proven to be a more effective and sustainable route for mitigating threats to critical infrastructure.
While a student in AMU’s Intelligence Analysis graduate program last year, I was working as a senior administrator for an Ohio county’s Department of Environmental Services. With the guidance of Dr. Joseph DiRenzo, I was able to apply my real-world experience to the classroom and conducted a threat analysis of my local water reclamation systems. No such analysis of our county’s wastewater treatment plants had been undertaken before. With the worrying state of the current global and national climate, it would be helpful to know what we were facing on a local level.
With the support of my department’s director, I worked with the director of the county’s Emergency Management Agency (EMA) to create a threat analysis team comprised of various public safety, fire, and public health professionals. The varied backgrounds, knowledge and experience of team members brought together new ideas, giving us insights into threat perspectives we did not initially consider.
Full story: Working together to improve critical infrastructure
