Assignment

For the SLPs in this course, your assignments will be based on unique scenarios, which have directly impacted Homeland Security. The scenario for the Module 4 SLP is as follows:

Following Hurricane Katrina, DHS found it did not have the resources necessary to provide for the safety and security of its citizens caught in the impacted areas of New Orleans. In an effort to ensure a sense of order and to ensure this safety and security, the US military was deployed to patrol and secure the devastated areas of the city and outlying areas. However, even this effort was deemed insufficient, and private security contractors were hired to provide additional protection and ensure civil order.

In the months and years after the storm, multiple reports cited abuses and a lack of oversight of these private contractors, to include accusations of illegal employment of weapons against residents.

As an intelligence analyst with the Department of Homeland Security, you have been directed to develop a background paper examining the potential for the future use of private security contractors, to include an assessment of their misuse and abuses following Hurricane Katrina. This background paper will cover the following issues:

1. Describe the alleged abuses and crimes committed by these contractors and the legal results that followed (i.e. lawsuits, trials, convictions, etc.).

2. Examine and assess the US government's efforts to uncover these abuses, their findings, and their recommendations for the future use of private security firms in the event of a national disaster.