Homeland security resource center in the works

Center for State Homeland Security

Three organizations are developing a resource center designed to help state governments successfully implement homeland security initiatives.

Officials at the Center for State Homeland Security, scheduled to open next year, will offer research and development strategies. They will also evaluate technologies and provide start-up and systems engineering support for homeland security systems.

The National Emergency Management Association, the Adjutants General Association of the United States and Mitretek Systems Inc. are developing the center, which will be located in Falls Church, Va., and open within a year, officials said.

The center will work with officials at all levels — federal, state, local and private — to provide a central place to share information about issues state and local leaders are confronting. When a state has a problem, it can contact the center to help find the best solution.

"A state might say, 'We're struggling with radio inoperability,' " said Robert Clerman, vice president of Mitretek. "The center may already have info that they can share with the state or they may initiate a project to solve that problem. But in most cases that problem will be shared by other states. Why should a state try something 50 times over if there is already a working solution somewhere else?"