Who's Responsible for Keeping You Safe?

April 2 -- More than six months after terror hit the United States, and amid a continued state of heightened alert, officials in Washington are still hammering out a homeland defense strategy. But the real work of protecting U.S. cities isn't taking place in the nation's capital.

Several congressional committees are debating how to spend billions in homeland defense dollars. The president has requested $38 billion for homeland security in the next budget. Tom Ridge, the homeland security director coordinating efforts between 40 federal agencies, 50 states and thousands of cities and towns, is expected to release a national terror preparedness strategy in July.

Meanwhile, though, state and local governments are already going ahead with security plans, waiting for federal funds to flow, and haggling over who should have the ultimate say over how communities protect themselves from terror. Government and security experts say the nature of the terror threat has created a new relevance for officials on the state and local level in the area of national security.

"What makes people secure is what local officials, emergency officials, hospitals do," David McIntyre, deputy director of Anser Institute for Homeland Security, said. "Ridge can stand in his office and shout all day long, but no sheriff in the United States has to do what he says."

The ongoing debate highlights just how tricky it is for the nation to prepare for potential new terror attacks. Communities have different levels of readiness, unequal financial resources, varying emergency services systems that may not easily work together in a major disaster, and unique assets that require protection.

Protecting major cities like Los Angeles or New York requires a different approach than safeguarding a weapons stockpile in the rural Midwest.

In a recent speech, Ridge himself said there was only so much the federal government could do to create safety plans for cities. "There is no prescription we can write out and give to the communities," he said.

Lurching at the ‘Threat du Jour’

It is still unclear just how much control the federal government will attempt to take over state and local preparedness plans. For their part, local officials say they know best what their communities need, especially since they are the first to respond to a crisis when it strikes home.

On Sept. 11, "not one victim was rescued by a federal representative," said Peter Beering, Indianapolis' terrorism preparedness coordinator. "That does not mean there is not a critical role for the federal government to play."