Threat assessment called priority

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2004 | 9:27 a.m.

A statewide threat assessment remains a priority for the Nevada Homeland Security Commission as it decides how to spend $28 million in federal grant money allocated to make the state safer from terrorist attack.

While the $28 million awarded by the federal Department of Homeland Security is about $8 million less than what the state received last year, the assessment shouldn't be among the cuts that may have to be made, Clark County Sheriff Bill Young said.

"The threat assessment is critical for us," Young said. "We need to have this internal look at what we have in Nevada so that we can get more bang for the money we do get."

Young said he envisions the threat assessment as being a tool that the state's congressional delegation can use in the continuing effort to get more funding for the state and specifically Las Vegas.

"It's obvious that we're not getting our fair share," Young said of federal homeland security dollars. "The funding is driven through Washington, D.C., and they don't have anyone on the ground here to see what we need."

Dale Carrison, chairman of the Nevada Homeland Security Commission, said he estimates that a complete threat assessment for the state would cost about $400,000.

Carrison said the UNLV Institute for Security Studies and Bechtel Nevada Corp. are in the early stages of putting together a proposal to conduct the assessment. The two entities could bring the proposal before the commission as early as its January meeting.

Lee Van Arsdale, executive director of the UNLV Institute of Security Studies, said the proposal is in the early stages.

"There is a lot of talking going on, but the assessment is critical," Van Arsdale said. "Whoever conducts the assessment will need to look at everything that has already been done by Metro Police, the FBI and the National Guard in terms of threats to the state.

"Everything that has been done will have to be taken into account to see how it all fits together. Then once you have that picture you start to fill in the voids."

The Institute for Security Studies already works closely with Bechtel Nevada in providing training for high-ranking emergency officials such as Young.

Bechtel Nevada is the primary contractor at the Nevada Test Site, which houses the National Nuclear Security Administration's counterterrorism program. The program is one of nine across the country involved in counterterrorism training for emergency responders, officials with the National Nuclear Security Administration said.