Governor Scott McCallum's Summary of Wisconsin Terrorism Preparedness Efforts for this Week

 
 Responding to the September 11th Terrorist Attacks:
Wisconsin's Terrorism Preparedness Efforts
January 25, 2002 Report


In response to the tragic events of September 11th, I will continue to work
aggressively to keep Wisconsin citizens safe.  My Budget Reform Act which I
released on Tuesday, contains a domestic security initiative that will
strengthen the state's readiness on many different fronts, including grants
to local police and fire departments for equipment and training, and money
for the creation of a statewide trauma system that links front-line
personnel with doctors and medical specialists.

September 11th changed our lives in countless ways. Among the most important
lessons we have learned are how we sometimes take for granted the service of
our public safety officials. When we talk about domestic security, these men
and women serve on the front line.

Facts About Our Nation's First Responders
*       There are over 1 million firefighters in the United States, of which
approximately 750,000 are volunteers.
*       Local police departments have an estimated 556,000 full-time
employees including about 436,000 sworn law enforcement personnel.
*       Sheriffs' offices reported about 291,000 full-time employees,
including about 186,000 sworn officers.
*       There are over 155,000 nationally registered emergency medical
technicians.

Below are some of the outreach efforts by various state and local agencies
in the past week.

Homeland Security Advisors Meet in White House
On January 24, Governor Ridge invited the state's Homeland Security point of
contacts to the White House for a briefing and to hear from President Bush.
Wisconsin Emergency Management Administrator Ed Gleason represented
Wisconsin at the meeting.  The President announced that he will propose $38
billion in next year's budget for homeland security with $3.5 billion
targeted for first responders at the local level.  He did not want our
nation to be daunted by the magnitude of the challenge and recognizes that
this will require a national effort, not federal, and that all levels of
government across the fabric of our country must join together.  He
expressed that our most important job is to protect our citizens, protect
our economy, protect our culture, and that our nation must stand tall and
not waiver in this commitment.  My administration fully supports these
principles and I will work hard to meet these challenges.

Governor Ridge made it clear that the threat remains and we must be prepared
to detect, prevent and respond to terrorist's acts.  He believes strongly
that our first responders are the key and he is fully aware of the need that
we must foster improved intelligence sharing and involve local law
enforcement.

The Office of Homeland Security will focus on first responders, intelligence
sharing, bioterrorism, and border issues.  Key efforts are to ensure that we
secure our homeland, spend dollars in support of programs that achieve
security objectives, build sustainable capacity and forge partnerships that
reflect a sharing of responsibilities and costs.

The Homeland Security advisors were also briefed on the soon to be released
National Threat Advisory System that will be used to alert the nation of
future threats. It is being developed with four levels of alert, Ready
(baseline), Alert (increased likelihood of an event), Serious (likely an
event will occur), and Critical (imminent threat or the event happened).
This system is intended to be a guide and they are still vetting this system
through state and local government and associations to ensure that prior to
implementing, they have considered all the implications.  They anticipate
going operational with this system in late February.

Heritage Foundation Issues Report, Defending the American Homeland
Wisconsin Emergency Management Administrator Gleason and homeland security
advisors from throughout the nation met with former Attorney General Edwin
Meese III at a briefing for State Directors of Homeland Security hosted by
the Heritage Foundation. The Heritage Foundation formed a task force in the
aftermath of September 11th to review the number of proposals put forth by
commissions and legislative initiatives over the years.  The Heritage
Foundation developed top priorities for actions at all levels of government.
Their recently published report focused on the following areas:

        1.      Protecting the nation's infrastructure - ensure that
communications networks, utilities and water supplies, banking and finance
systems, transportation nodes and intelligence systems are protected.

        2.      Strengthening civil defense against terrorism - recognizing
that our local first responders are the key to an effective response, we
must improve our ability to respond to a chemical, biological, radiological
or nuclear attack.

        3.      Improve intelligence and law enforcement capabilities - urge
that this be improved at all levels of government and that local law
enforcement be actively involved.

        4.      Military operations to combat terrorism.  U.S armed forces
must be prepared to not only identify an impending terrorist attack, but
also must be prepared to respond to them rapidly, working with intelligence
community and federal, state and local officials.

Further information on the report, Defending the American Homeland, may be
obtained through their website www.heritage.org .

Improving Security For Water Utilities
To address the security needs of large and small water suppliers around the
state, the Wisconsin Rural Water Association is providing a series of
training sessions around the state.  Water utilities remain on heightened
alert and have been doing additional monitoring and encouraging workers and
customers to report any unusual situations.

Protecting Agriculture Industry
A regional emergency response plan for animal disease emergencies and an
electronic system to track animal shipment and monitor disease outbreaks
were some of the topics discussed this week in Chicago at an animal disease
planning workshop sponsored by the Illinois Department of Agriculture.
Representatives from Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer
Protection and Wisconsin Emergency Management met with their counterparts
from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina and Missouri to
discuss agri-terrroism and to improve coordination and communications with
regards to transporting livestock across state lines.  The states will
continue to meet in the future and discuss these issues.

Training for Emergency Officials in Appleton
More than 300 members of law enforcement, fire and emergency management
attended a three-day conference on domestic security issues this week in
Appleton.  The conference sponsored by Wisconsin Department of Justice was
designed to help local agencies gather intelligence and promote cooperation
among various emergency agencies.

Waukesha County to Host Domestic Preparedness Training
Waukesha County Emergency Management in cooperation with the Waukesha County
Technical College is offering "Community in Crisis, Managing chaos to a
successful outcome" on January 29-30 at WCTC.  Nationally recognized experts
will discuss violence in our communities and effective mitigation and
response strategies.  Walk-in registration is available.  $125 per person.
Contact Jim Malueg at 262-548-7580 for additional information.
 

 Scott McCallum
 Governor of the State of Wisconsin