Americans on homeland security: Ready and willing but uninformed

A majority of U.S. citizens say they want to help prevent another terrorist attack but don't know how, according to a report released Tuesday.

Most citizens would be willing to volunteer to get trained for homeland security efforts but remain uninformed about how to connect with federal, state and local emergency preparedness officials, according to We the People: Homeland Security from the Citizens' Perspective, a new report from the Council for Excellence in Government. The report contains nearly 50 recommendations for improving homeland security that were developed through town hall meetings in seven cities, a national survey of citizens and emergency responders, and feedback from expert working groups.

"One of the key findings … is the need to raise the baseline level of preparedness in America," said Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge during a forum in Washington to release the report. "As we have learned from these town halls, there is an information gap that exists now between citizens and government."

Three-fourths of Americans interviewed for the report expect another terrorist attack in the United States or overseas in the next few months, but very few were aware of plans to respond to such an emergency and did not know where to turn if an attack occurs. Citizens said they were most worried about bioterrorism, followed by chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, suicide bombings, airplane hijackings and, lastly, cyberterrorism.

Most citizens said they are satisfied with the job the government is doing to protect civil liberties, but were skeptical about the government's use of personal information.

"To improve homeland security, the American people want better information sharing, tighter border security and smarter spending of our tax dollars," the report concluded.

One of the major recommendations in the report calls for DHS to convene leaders from federal, state and local government, as well as the private sector and civic organizations, to revise the 2002 National Strategy for Homeland Security. The strategy has not been updated since DHS went into operation last year.

Ridge said the report shows that the government needs citizens to help prevent attacks.

"We believe emergency preparedness starts with individual responsibility. I can have all the information in the world, but I have to make a choice to act on it, and so does every single American," Ridge said. "As a government, we have to depend on individual citizens to take the information we provide and put it to use."

Ridge later told reporters that DHS needs multiple messengers to get information to the public, such as civic organizations.

"There's plenty of information out there, but using this report as one more means to get people to connect themselves with their place of work or their school is a very positive reinforcement of our message," he said.

He acknowledged that homeland security efforts by different agencies might overlap in some areas, but said that is not necessarily bad.

"Homeland security is not just the responsibility of one federal department. We interact on a daily basis with a variety of other agencies, and we interact with other levels of government in the public sector and the private sector," he said. "There may be some overlap, there may be some redundancy as we work things out. But, frankly, having more people looking at a problem rather than less I think will get us to a solution quicker."