The nation’s Homeland Security director, Michael Chertoff, told a group of state legislators today that emergency communications and verifiable identification remain challenges for states to deal with in protecting the nation against future terrorist attacks.
Chertoff told the annual convention of the National Conference of State Legislatures today that last week’s foiled terrorist plot show how far the United States and the United Kingdom have come since 9-11.
But he says the first responders–like police and fire departments–in many cities still don’t have the capability to talk to each other in an emergency. Chertoff also says that fake photo identification remains a problem.
“We’ve literally got 100s of kinds of identification that we know use, allow people to use to cross borders, or get into federal buildings, or get on airplanes. And it’s very tough to expect the people who maintain the front lines to be able to detect variations and fraud in 75 or 100 different kinds of documents.”
The federally mandated Real ID act goes into effect in 2008. It requires a federally approved identification card. Since states issue driver’s licenses and ID cards, Chertoff says the federal government is working on a set of guidelines to help states streamline and standardize the process. Those guidelines have not yet been issued.
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