Polls & Research

Americans Split Over Homeland Security Success

(Angus Reid Global Scan) - Adults in the United States are divided on the effectiveness of an entity established to protect them from harm, according to a poll by Princeton Survey Research Associates published in Newsweek. 45 per cent of respondents say the Department of Homeland Security has made Americans safer, while 49 per cent disagree.

Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes in the U.S. on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people. In July 2004, the federal commission that investigated the events of 9/11 concluded that "none of the measures adopted by the U.S. government from 1998 to 2001 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al-Qaeda plot" and pointed out government failures of "imagination, policy, capabilities, and management."

Homeland Security was established in November 2002, to consolidate several organizations of the executive branch into a single cabinet entity. Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge acted as director and later as secretary. In March 2002, Ridge presented a five-level colour-coded advisory system meant to provide a "comprehensive and effective means to disseminate information regarding the risk of terrorist acts to federal, state, and local authorities and to the American people."

In March, Michael Chertoff took over as the new homeland security secretary. U.S. president George W. Bush praised his nominee as someone who "understands that as we adapt our defences, the terrorists will adapt their tactics in response." 50 per cent of respondents believe the federal government is now better able to respond to another major terrorist attack, while 44 per cent disagree.

Polling Data

Do you think the creation of the Department of Homeland Security has made Americans safer, or not?

Four years after 9/11, do you think the federal government is better able to respond to another major terrorist attack, or not?