New strategic plan summary for CBP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5500 words

New strategic plan summary for CBP - Essay Example However, the current enforcement policy presumes that all goods and all travellers are guilty until such time as they prove otherwise. Thus clearance at US borders is based on interrogations and inspections that are quite often unnecessary. In this regard, resources are being wasted on legitimate goods and legitimate travellers when those resources would be better spent inspecting and interrogating unlawful goods, unauthorized travellers and security threats whether in the form of persons or goods. It is also believed that CBP’s community engagement initiatives are far too institutional and does not devote enough resources and time to forging relationships with the community. There is a need for CBP to actively engage members of the community as a means of ensuring that they build a sense of confidence in the CBP’s mission and goals and support it. There is a need to change the current practice of communicating what CBP is doing and what CBP has done or will do in terms of keeping US borders safe. While there is a need to continue to reassure the public via transparency via communication, there is also a need to open up the lines of communication so that CBP gets information from the community. The community provides a rich source of information relative to where illegal immigrants, international criminals and terrorists and contraband originate from and where they go once they enter the US. The strategic plan in this report therefore proposes to reconceptualise customs and border patrol with a view to changing the enforcement-focused approach to border security. While enforcement is always necessary it is not the only method for keeping US borders safe. When time and resources are managed more appropriately US borders will be safer. Thus the strategic plan suggests training officers to identify more accurately travellers and goods that are candidates for quick clearance so that CBP officers can direct their attention to the more serious security risks. Therefore the strategic plan calls for a dual strategy: accommodating legitimate travellers and lawful goods; enforcement and deterrence of unlawful travellers, criminals and terrorists. The strategic plan also calls for training agents and officers to be more capable of recognizing and responding to security threats in instances where travellers or goods are legitimate and should be cleared for entry. There are cases where a traveller has the requisite travel documents but is entering the US for criminal or terrorist reasons. Rather than inspecting all visitors and going on what amounts to a fishing expedition, officers should be specifically trained to know when it is appropriate to interrogate a traveller or conduct a more invasive search of goods. The strategic plan also calls for assigning agents to community relations and this involves maintaining a tip line for receiving anonymous tips from members of the public. It is important that members of the community feel invol ved in the security process as they will be more inclined to cooperate and to share important information with the CBP. Members of the public can help CBP direct its resources properly by providing information about where contraband originates and where criminals and illegals go when they enter the US or how they get to the US when they are not cleared at the

Smoking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Smoking - Essay Example This fact has been firmly established by the more than a hundred years of experience of the consequences of smoking. Concern in society on the implications of smoking has led to public policy towards controlling the decision of the teenagers to start smoking and cessation of smoking strategies in the adult population (Sloan, Smith & Taylor, 2003). Smoking in the United Kingdom The early twentieth century witnessed smoking becoming a mass phenomenon in the United Kingdom, riding on the smoking being the â€Å"in† thing in society. Almost 13 million of the population in the United Kingdom continues as smokers. Estimates suggest that half of the smoking population will have premature deaths, as a consequence of diseases caused by smoking, losing a minimum of eight years in their life span. The prevalence of smoking peaked in the 1940s in men and the 1960s women. Since then there has been a decline in the prevalence in smoking. However, two features stand out in this decline in th e prevalence of smoking in the United Kingdom, with the decline being not so marked among the socio-economic backward classes and among young adults (Edwards, 2004). Smoking surveys in Britain started in 1948 and the prevalence of smoking among men was put at 85%. ... Current estimates suggest that around10 million people continue to smoke in Britain (Cancer Research UK, 2011). Reasons for the Prevalence of Smoking Several key factors have contributed to this decline in the prevalence of smoking to its lowest levels in Britain and demonstrating that Britain has more effectively tackled the smoking menace than many of the other developed countries. The first such key factor is the information campaign against smoking, highlighting the dangers associated with smoking that has been carried out in Britain for several decades (Meikle, 2011). The socio-economic backward classes have been a high risk population for smoking. Reduction in the inequalities in the society in Britain has reduced the proportion of socio-economic backward classes in UK (Alder et al, 2009). Education levels have been rising in Britain. The higher education levels the better the awareness and assimilation of the dangers associated with smoking, which has a negative impact on an i ndividual taking to smoking or continuing to smoke (Bittoun & Browning, 2005). The price of tobacco products has an impact on the prevalence of smoking. The higher the prices of the prices of tobacco products are the lower the levels of smoking. Government action through a taxation policy has kept the prices of tobacco at higher levels (Hayes, 2007). Reasons for Continued Smoking Cigarette smoking starts as an adolescent. These children may look upon smoking as the right way to approach adulthood or they may succumb to peer-pressure and start smoking. Another possible reason for teenagers taking to smoking may be an attempt to demonstrate their rebellion against society. Whatever be