Introduction
The purpose of this document is to provide an updated formal strategic plan for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Division of Police (DP). This plan is designed to provide our stakeholders with an articulation of our vision of the future for the Division, and to clarify our direction for the Division of Police employees, partners, such as, other Security & Emergency Response (SER) components and consultants.
Although the major themes identified in this plan have been discussed in prior documents, the scope of changes and the application of the processes require integration of our current status, accomplishments and related plans for the future into a single plan. This strategic plan will be vetted throughout our stakeholder community and within our employee structure prior to final publication. It is important to note that this strategic plan will serve as a reflection of the ever-changing needs of the Office of Management (OM), Office of Research Services (ORS) and the NIH community.
Just as this version of the plan has been updated based on accomplishments and adjustments in direction, we will continue to document future changes within upcoming versions of this document. We will reevaluate this document at least annually to ensure these changes are incorporated.
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Background
The NIH Police, in conjunction with other SER components, have made huge strides in developing comprehensive and coordinated policies and approaches towards transforming organizational structure, procedures, resources, staffing, and key initiatives, particularly since the development of the original plan in 2005 and the completion of major initiatives over the past five years.
All of the Branches, Guard Operations Branch (GOB), Police Operations Branch (POB), and Support Services Branch (SSB) within the Division of Police have completed goals associated with these initiatives, resulting in positive impacts on internal work units, as well as increasing the Division, SER and ORS’s ability to provide better and more relevant services to the greater NIH community.
This document also defines how the Division of Police aligns with core values, goals and objectives defined in the ORS Strategic Plan and the Strategic Priorities defined in the OM Plan and discusses the relationship between the Division of Police plan and government-wide mandates and directives.
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Strategic Themes
It is important to understand just how much the Division of Police has transformed in recent years. Many of the challenges were triggered by external events, and many resulted from new needs of the NIH community and caused a significant shift in focus. This shift was further propelled by the maturation of lead agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in clarifying the need to implement government-wide mandates regarding operational procedures and sharing of intelligence information to prevent or minimize the impact of potential future threats.
In addition, the Federal government has created the Interagency Security Committee (ISC) for the purpose of “enhancing the quality and effectiveness for the protection” of civilian Federal facilities. Many of these standards replace or combine standards previously issued by Department of Justice (DOJ) and/or the General Services Administration (GSA). In achieving this mandate, ISC has developed and consolidated standards and “Best Practices” to eliminate confusion and to clarify Federal civilian-occupied facility security standards. To address these challenges and mandates, the Division of Police intends to focus on three critical strategic themes that will engage Division employees, address government-wide mandates and assist in the fulfillment of the ORS and OM Strategic Plans.
These three critical strategic themes include:
Accreditation
The Division of Police has invested significant resources in writing and updating its policies and procedures. This effort, combined with a rigorous training program, has 
resulted in improving consistency and professionalism in all the Division processes and in the way the Division interacts with other NIH organizations and individual NIH employees. Although the majority of policies and procedure have been written, many must be approved for final publication and implementation. When this is accomplished, the Division of Police–wide training will be performed and the Division will apply for accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). CALEA auditors will evaluate the thoroughness and credibility of the written policies and procedure, and will then test the DP’s ability to carry out the procedures as written.
It is the strategy of the Division of Police to receive accreditation with few or minimal exceptions or adjustments. As with any formal accreditation, this strategy will continue to provide officers with a sense of professional purpose and pride. Additionally, the NIH will benefit from having one of the few Federal sworn officer forces who have been successful in achieving CALEA accreditation.
Automation
In the current climate of ever-declining budgets and ever-increasing workload demands, it is clear that the Division of Police must take advantage of automation where feasible to eliminate redundancies and speed processes.
The Division is in the process of implementing a variety of tools to support administrative and management processes in support of Individual Development Plans, Division of Police-specific Training, Employee Information, Equipment/Supply Inventory, Vehicle Tracking, Project/Task Management, Staffing Assignments, Resource/Budget Management, and Performance Management Plan Development and Tracking.
These various tools will offer staff a series of standard forms for submission of information, and will offer executives and managers a series of “consoles” in which the complied data can be tracked, analyzed, and will generate reports. These series of consoles will also provide the Division of Police executives with a dashboard of indicators that will support and enhance decision-making with the Division and will assist in providing input to future budget requests.
Professional Practices
The Division of Police draws experienced recruits from a variety of fields of Law Enforcement. Even though the collective combined skill-set of these recruits has allowed the Division of Police to be better prepared for a variety of unforeseen circumstances, the Division has determined that the force, as a whole, needs to present a consistent, high-level of professionalism that reflects the hard work performed in accomplishing the details set out in the original strategic plan, as well as in this updated plan. This strategic focus is tied closely with the “Accreditation” focus (discussed above) and will contribute greatly to ensuring that the Division of Police maintains a high standard of professionalism in its major policies and procedures. In addition, this strategy will assist in improving the supervisor/ management training programs, as well as enhancing the overall appearance of the forces through the acquisition of appropriate attire. Also, this strategy addresses the on-going need for the upgrade and maintenance of “Special Response” Teams.
These events, challenges, organizational changes and new strategies, such as the implementation of perimeter security systems, visitors center and vehicle inspection stations, have required the Division of Police to split many operational functions such as manning the perimeter security station, which used to be a contracted guard function which has been reassigned to police operations, utilizing more of a community policing philosophy. Current functions are described below.
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Division of Police Overview
The Division of Police is the largest of six divisions within SER and reports to the Director of ORS through the Associate Director for SER. The Director and Associate Director also fill the roles of Chief Security Officer and Deputy Chief Security Officer for the NIH respectively. The Division of Police is organized into three branches managed and supported by the
NIH Chief and Deputy Chief of Police and a small staff of administrative personnel. The three branches include, as illustrated:
A more detailed description of the functions within each Branch is provided below.
Police Operations Branch
The Police Operations Branch is responsible for delivering the bulk of the “policing” services. This Branch conducts routine patrols, responds to and handles emergencies, enforces laws, investigates crimes, and provides public services such as escorts and lock-out relief to those in need of assistance.
The Police Operations Branch utilizes standard crime prevention methods and techniques to minimize crime at the NIH. Police Operations, in anticipation of future security and protection needs of the NIH, trains and deploys Special Response Teams with proficiencies in Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT), Assault Response, Sniper Attacks, and Hostage Negotiation. These teams are composed of existing officers who are assigned to each regular shift. These officers receive special training or cross-training, as appropriate. Additionally, Police Operations Branch, in preparing for various future threats, is creating a plan that will potentially create other special teams.
This Branch is also responsible for the safe and efficient movement of traffic on the campus including the investigation of traffic accidents, enforcement of traffic laws and parking regulations, and the direction of traffic flow throughout the campus.
In conjunction with the Guard Operations Branch, Police Operations Branch activities at the campus perimeter are designed to decrease the likelihood that explosives or contraband are carried onto the campus. Additionally, specially trained explosive detection K-9 teams conduct inspections of vehicles at the campus perimeter.
Guard Operations Branch
In conjunction with the activities of the Police Operations Branch as mentioned above, the Guard Operations Branch is responsible for reducing the probability that weaponized vehicles may enter the NIH campus and is also responsible for preventing intrusions of the grounds and facilities.
This Branch is responsible for inspecting vehicles, other property and persons at the perimeter of the campus, as well as inspections at specific locations within the campus interior. They provide security services at the NIH facilities located on and off the Bethesda Campus, at locations such as RML, and coordinate security for many special events.
The special events work group also provides escort services for visiting dignitaries and coordinates a number of processes involved in providing background checks and badge issuance for special visitors, service providers, vendors and construction workers.
Additionally, this group provides security clearance services to these same special groups at Fort Detrick, Maryland, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, Rocky Mountain National Labs (RML) in Hamilton, Montana and the Bay view facility in Baltimore, Maryland. These services require interface with a variety of the NIH organizations, as well as data entry and query with the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS), the NIH Enterprise Directory (NED) and the Background Investigation Tracking System (BITS).
The management of guard services and the execution of special events services are performed by sworn, uniformed officers. The delivery of guard services are provided by contract employees through a multi-million dollar per year performance–based contract that the Guard Operations Branch manages.
Support Services Branch
The Support Services Branch provides a variety of services to the Police Operations Branch, the Guard Services Branch and the Office of the Chief (OTC) in terms of training, and the coordination, management, and control of supplies, and inventory.
This Branch also operates the NIH Emergency Communications Center (ECC) that receives calls for service from the community, resulting in dispatching police, fire, rescue, and guard resources as required.
In addition, this Branch provides training coordination for Division of Police-specific training required by Police Officers and Emergency Communications staff which includes providing Division-wide leadership in the update and maintenance of Position Descriptions, Individual Development Plans, and Performance Plans.
This Branch additionally researches, coordinates, purchases, and trains Division staff users on major police-specific information systems.
The Support Services Branch also provides and coordinates community policing functions on the NIH campus, as well as researching, tracking, managing and reporting intelligence information to NIH senior management and the NIH community at large.
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Division of Police Mission, Vision, and Value Proposition
Due in large part to the changes discussed earlier in this document, the Division of Police revised its mission and vision statement to align more closely with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the NIH stated missions and direction. These statements, along with the value proposition, articulate the DP’s transformed role in support of Agency long-term goals and objectives.
It is the mission of the NIH Division of Police to protect our country’s national treasure: Scientific Research and the NIH research community, and further to ensure that the mission of NIH is not impeded by personal attacks, loss of assets, criminal activity or acts of terrorism.
Mission
The vision of the Division of Police is to provide our services in the most professional and least intrusive manner through the application and use of state of the art methods and technology. We are making continuous improvements to our operations and procedures to ensure that this vision will be realized and we have solicited the assistance of ORS and NIH Senior management, other Agencies, consultants, as well as our own employees, to accomplish the needed tasks.
Vision
The NIH Division of Police brings value to the NIH community by ensuring the safety and security of employees, visitors, patients, and contractors and the protection of NIH’s research and knowledge assets. The officers and employees of the Division of Police attempt to meet this responsibility in the least invasive manner at a reasonable cost to the Agency.
Value Proposition
The remainder of this strategic plan addresses the detailed way in which the Division of Police plans to deliver value to its customers and fulfill its mission and vision.
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The Road Ahead
Context for The Division of Police Strategic Plan
The Division of Police strategic direction is set within the context of some known parameters. The Division acknowledges that the current security environment, and the likely future security environment, will be driven by external factors such as threat levels and intelligence information. These factors are, for the most part, out of the control of the Division of Police but will require an ongoing high level of intelligence, flexibility, preparedness and responsiveness in order to adapt to a variety of unknown variables.
At the same time, the Division is also concentrating on continuous improvement of several internal factors identified by the Division’s Executive Command staff. The Division of Police executives and managers recognize and acknowledge the need to prioritize and implement a series of initiatives designed to improve the processes, culture and personal growth within the Division.
Strategic Objectives and detailed goals/initiatives
The framework used for this plan was derived using the Performance Management Plan (PMP) approach and applying Balanced Scorecard principles and methodology. It is the intention of the Division of Police to use this framework to align with ORS, OM, NIH and DHHS plans, as well as to articulate the linkages with our three branches. The Division of Police chose this framework because it uses a proven methodology and because it ensures we have a balanced approach to our focus. It requires the Division to continuously look at ourselves from five (5) angles or perspectives including the perspectives of our customers, stakeholders, internal processes, learning and growth (our people), and financial stewardship so that we don’t “sub-optimize” the work that we do.
The NIH Division of Police has identified seven (7) major strategic objectives that articulate the direction of the Division, aligned with the perspectives discussed above and most importantly aligned with a series of goals that are mapped to the strategic objectives. The seven major strategic objectives include:
- Provide for the Safety of NIH Tangible Assets;
- Maximize Safety with minimal inconvenience at the best price;
- Stay ahead of potential threats;
- Improve the well-being of the Division of Police workforce;
- Maximize the use of automated performance management systems;
- Ensure Knowledge, Skills and Abilities (KSA’s) of the workforce are in line with potential threats; and
- Maximize funding for Division Readiness.
Metrics regarding our progress on these Strategic Objectives are collected in the form of “Readiness Indicators” used to inform the Division of Police Executives of the overall capability to meet these outcomes. Metrics on the progress of each goal are also reported. A more detailed explanation of the Division’s desired outcomes, by perspective, with the associated objectives and goals include:
Customer:
The Division of Police is the responsible operational agent for the safety and security of the NIH research and the community that supports that research. The Division of Police will make every effort to carry out this responsibility in manner that minimizes inconvenience to the NIH employees and visitors, while also being fiscally responsible to our stakeholders. Our major strategic objectives for fulfilling our customer’s needs include:
Objective 1: Provide for the Safety of the NIH tangible and intangible assets
The Division of Police is responsible for protecting both the researchers and their research from harm. We consider the work performed by the NIH research community to be “a national treasure,” and therefore entitled to the best possible security and safety resources to enable continued research. This outcome supports the ORS core value of “Excellence” and it also supports the OM Strategic Priority of “Risk Management.” The goals and initiatives associated with this objective include:
Goal 1.1: Improved Policies and Procedures
Initiatives:
- Complete the development of post orders for off-campus guard posts
- Upgrade all off-campus security guard orders to ensure current and effective ways of meeting today’s demands
- Convert the Policy Writing position from contractor to a Full-Time Equivalent (Federal Government FTE) policy writer
- Continue to rewrite the Manual Order of Rules and Procedures
- As appropriate, train staff on directives as they are developed and issued
- Begin the Development of “Standards of Training” for the various aspects of the Division of Police training program
- Review Written Processes and Procedures for hiring, promotion, assignment and special units to meet “today’s needs.” Work with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Union to establish common understanding and terms of policies
- Enhance Community Policing: Assign and Train personnel in Community Oriented Policing (COP) fundamentals for Buildings 31, 38, 45. Evaluate the effectiveness of the program and consider the expansion of the program.
Objective 2: Maximize safety with minimal inconvenience at the best price
The Division recognizes that the level of safety and security required to protect the NIH may be seen as inconvenient or intrusive. It is Division’s objective to offer the highest level of security and safety while minimizing the inconvenience to either employees or visitors. In addition, the Division of Police will be cognizant of the cost of offering these services and will work to always provide services at the best possible price. This outcome supports the ORS core value of “Integrity” and it also supports the OM Strategic Priority of “Communications.” The goals and initiatives required to accomplish this outcome include:
Goal 2.1: Strengthen the Division of Police Strategic Plans
Initiatives:
- Update the Division of Police Strategic Plan’s short, mid, and long-term goals and initiatives (Yearly Review of entire plan as necessary) by first quarter of calendar year
- Update the Division of Police Strategic Training Plan, as required by end of calendar year
- Continue meeting with various work groups and components of the Division of Police to enhance understanding of roles and responsibilities within the strategic plan.
Internal Business Processes
The Division of Police must continuously improve its business processes in large part because of the need to assign scarce resources properly. The Division cannot afford to engage in processes that are not streamlined or that may slow down response time. The majority of DP’s operational improvements are, therefore, focused on one objective:
Objective 3: Stay ahead of potential threats
The Division of Police will realign its processes to ensure the elimination of barriers and redundancies. The Division’s focus must be on the ability to lessen the administrative burden through automation, and through standardizing procedures to better enable our officers and employees to not only perform their assigned duties, but also to anticipate and prepare for potential threats. This outcome supports the ORS core values of “Excellence” and “Integrity” and it also supports the OM Strategic Priority of “Communications.” The goals and initiatives required to accomplish this outcome include:
Goal 3.1: Improve the Division of Police Operations
Initiatives:
- Monitor Status of ORS and Departmental initiatives to attain jurisdiction
- Commercial Vehicle Inspection (CVI ) upgrade
- Add x-ray machine
- Add connection to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database
- Add automated vehicle tag reader
- Position Descriptions: Ensure that the appropriate security clearance level is listed on every Position Description within the Division of Police
- Fill Special Response Team Lead Vacancy(s)
- Special Response Teams: Create short, mid and long-term goals and initiatives for this team
- Fill Vacancies in the Marksman Program and ensure initial training is completed as appropriate
- Unify the various response teams: Integrate teams into overall Special Response Teams Concept -- Have operational Commercial Dispatch and Reporting System (CODY) terminals placed at NIH’s Rocky Mountain Lab (RML)
- Have operational National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database terminal placed at Rocky Mountain Lab (RML)
- Bring the Division of Police security components for the National Institute on Allergies and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Bio Safety Level-4 (BSL-4) lab at Fort Detrick on-line
- Obtain equipment (card reader, turnstiles, x-ray machine, mags) for the NIH Bayview campus
- Continue and enhance Community Oriented Policing (COP)/guard inspection and testing program at the NIH campus
Learning and Growth
We place a very high value on the people who work in Division of Police. Our officers and our employees are the primary asset the Division offers in accomplishing our mission. We must focus attention on ensuring that we provide our staff with the right tools, work-environment, and skill-set to be successful members of our team. Therefore, one third of the Division’s strategic objectives are focused on its people. These include:
Objective 4: Improve the well-being of the Division of Police workforce
The Division of Police is committed to improving the culture and climate within the Division, including improving management-employee relations and adequately addressing and resolving personnel issues that arise. It is the intention of the Division to remove barriers to the well-being of its officers and office employees to better enable a focus on its mission. This outcome supports the ORS core values of “Excellence” and “Collaboration” and it also supports the OM Strategic Priority of “Human Capital Planning.” The initiatives and goals required to accomplish this outcome include:
Goal 4.1: Improve Environment
Initiatives:
- Issue a dress blouse to all uniformed officers to ensure professional appearance of the Division of Police at special functions
- Create a charter for the function of a standards training committee and appoint members as appropriate
- Establish a standing in-service training recommendations committee and appoint members as appropriate
- Develop a Business Case for adding additional sworn officer at Fort Detrick
- Train staff at off-site locations on how to use new equipment (card readers, turnstiles, x-ray machines, magnetometers, etc.) in support of equipment installation
- Incorporate supervisor/ management training component into each Police Management Exchange Forum
- Review written processes and procedures for: hiring, promotion, assignment and special units to ensure policies meet “today’s needs. Work with Union to establish common understanding and terms of policies.
Objective 5: Maximize the use of automated performance management systems
In support of streamlining its operational processes, the Division of Police will continue automating a number of paper-intensive and people-intensive processes. These include processes such as requesting training, assigning tasks, and making staffing decisions. This combination of automated systems, or consoles, will offer both employees and management a more informed basis for making operational decisions. This outcome supports the ORS core value of “Integrity” and “Excellence” and it also supports the OM Strategic Priority of “Data-Driven Decision Making.” The goals and initiatives required to accomplish this outcome include:
Goal 5.1: Implement Useful Management Information Systems
Initiatives:
- Replace Visitor Badging System to meet C & A standards, provide expandability and to improve interfaces offering access to other systems to help screen visitors more rapidly
- Automate Vehicle Maintenance Tracking and Replacement Plans
- Advertise and fill the Division of Police Website Manager position (auxiliary duty FTE Division of Police Position)
- Enhance internal and external Websites
- Populate the Division of Police Dashboard of Readiness Indicators with accurate data
- Convert the Division of Police Dashboard of Readiness Indicators from its current platform to SharePoint platform
- Monitor the Division of Police request to officially create an “Exempt Set of Records” for the majority of the Division of Police records
- Continue efforts to modify/establish the “Records Retention” system/ program for the Division of Police
- Identify and list the appropriate the Division of Police records that should be covered within the “Records Retention” system/ program.
Objective 6: Ensure KSAs of the workforce are in line with potential threats
The Division must make sure that the key knowledge, skills and abilities of the Division of Police workforce are aligned with the future safety and security needs of the NIH. The Division of Police will evaluate all new hires within the context of future needs, and will continuously evaluate its existing skill base to ensure the proper training courses or experiential assignments are made available. This outcome supports the ORS core values of “Customer Focus” and “Collaboration,” and it also supports the OM Strategic Priority of “Human Capital Planning.”
The Division of Police is committed to improving communications among its branches as well as between leadership and employees. The Division of Police will develop and implement an internal communications plan that will allow the Division managers and staff to communicate better with one another and to improve the availability and access to information by all employees. This outcome supports the ORS core value of “Customer Focus” and “Collaboration,” and it also supports the OM Strategic Priorities of “Human Capital Planning” and “Risk Management.” The goals and initiatives required to accomplish this outcome include:
Goal 6.1: Strategic Alignment
Initiatives:
- Complete the standup of the “Skills Manager” Program and use it to streamline the Division of Police process (templates, KSAs, Position Descriptions (PDs), etc.), as well as housing electronic copies of Performance Contracts
- Finalize the Division of Police Templates/format o Update all Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs,) Position Descriptions (PDs) and Individual Development Plans (IDPs) in accordance with templates
- Finalize an environmental policy for the Division of Police in accordance with ORS needs and direction
- Develop Charter for NIH DP Training Recommendations Committee
- Develop Charter for NIH DP Training Standards Committee
Goal 6.2: Improved Communications
Initiatives:
- Hold regular Town Hall meetings to provide information, answer questions, and receive staff input
- Hold regular Police Management Information Exchange Forums (PMIEFs)
- Plan management meeting for January of 2011 calendar year to update accomplishments, status of short-med and long-term goals and initiatives
Financial
The Division of Police is focusing its attention on assisting its managers and supervisors to become better financial stewards of budgeted funds, and on understanding how to forecast and justify future needs that must be inserted into our budget requests. The primary strategic object focused on financial and budget aspects of the Division of Police is as follows:
Objective 7: Maximize funding for Division Readiness
The Division of Police will focus leadership attention on enhancing our ability to forecast future budget needs, and on ensuring that approved budget dollars are consistently spent as authorized. The Division intends to infuse rigor and discipline into managing spending plans and in justifying budget requests. This outcome supports the ORS core value of “Integrity,” and it also supports the OM Strategic Priority of “Risk Management.” The goals and initiatives required to accomplish this outcome include:
Goal 7.1: Improved Business Acumen
Initiatives:
- Improve knowledge and management of budget process by ensuring ongoing communications with the Office of Financial Management (OFM), Office of Logistics and Acquisition Operations (OLAO), the NIH Budget Office and the SER/ORS Budget team to ensure financial integrity and lower risk in budget development and execution process. To the best of span of control of the Division of Police, we must manage spending plans according to information provided through preliminary and final budget plans and build “business cases” for the Division of Police spending in current and “out” budget years.
As mentioned earlier, the Division of Police will measure its progress on each strategic objective by reporting the data associated with the Division’s readiness (within the Division of Police “Dashboard”) and through monitoring key operational metrics. The detailed approach, due date and assigned personnel for each of these subtasks is provided in Attachment A entitled “Short, Mid, and Long-Term Goals and Initiatives.” These tasks and subtasks discussed above represent the Business Plan (annual plan) for the Division of Police and correspond to activities that the Division staff will be focusing on during this fiscal year. Attachment A also includes a detailed list of achievements and completed initiatives from our original 2005-2010 Strategic Plan which have been completed during the five years since that plan was constructed.
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Linkages With Other Plans
The Division of Police Strategic Plan was not developed in isolation. It was deliberately linked to the Interagency Security Committee (ISC) Standards and Best Practices including Homeland Security Directives, Executive Orders, and Department of Justice recommendations. This plan was also linked to the NIH mission and objectives, to OM Goals and tasks, and to the ORS Strategic Plan Core Values and Objectives.
In addition, DP’s strategy is aligned with the Division’s Security Plan (see Attachment C) and the Division’s Training Plan (see Attachment D). The Division Plan is also the over-arching reflection of internal lower-level plans articulated in the Branch-level assignments.
Further, the Division of Police is finalizing its Individual Development Plans to ensure linkage with the Division’s Strategic Plan, Security Plan, and ORS/OM Strategic Plans.
The remainder of this section provides a summary of the way in which these external and internal plans are integrated, linked and supported by the Division of Police Strategic Plan.
Homeland Security Presidential Directives 5, 7, 8, and 12
This series of Presidential Directives (PDs) provides direction to Agencies and Departments regarding the protection of Federal properties and assets against terrorist attacks, major disasters, and other emergencies. Three of these PDs, including HSPD 5, 7, 8, and 12 are of particular relevance to the NIH Division of Police strategic planning efforts and is discussed below.
HSPD5-Management of Domestic Incidents: This directive establishes the lines of authority for Homeland Security in directing all Government Agencies with regard to their obligation in the homeland security efforts.
HSPD7-Critical Infrastructure Identification, Prioritization, and Protection: This directive guides Agencies to identify a security plan that provides needed levels of security and safety for critical infrastructure.
HSPD-8 National Preparedness Goal: This directive, although still in draft form, provides initial guidelines for “preparedness” in response to various emergencies including domestic terrorism or other threats to people, facilities, and intellectual property.
HSDP-12 Policy for Common Identification Standard: This directive will result in substantial changes to the way in which access is managed at the NIH facilities.
In response to these directives, the NIH Division of Police has developed the NIH Security Plan, discussed below. In addition, the Division of Police is organizing itself to better manage this security plan and to improve its ability to establish a safe environment. The Division is working closely with other SER Divisions to ensure proper implementation of these directives. More information on the Homeland Security Directives discussed here are provided at the Homeland Security Website (cited above) and interpreted by Interagency Security Committee.
NIH Goals and Roadmap Initiatives
The Division of Police’s Strategic Plan was developed with purposeful linkages to the NIH Mission, the published NIH Goals, as well as the NIH programs. The NIH Mission Statement is as follows:
“ NIH’s mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce the burdens of illness and disability.”
The Division of Police recognizes the importance of the NIH mission and acknowledges its own role in ensuring and protecting the mission. The Division of Police mission statement is:
“It is the mission of the NIH Division of Police to our country’s national treasure: and the , and further to by personal attacks, loss of assets, criminal activity or acts of terrorism.”
Key elements of the Division of Police mission statement are underlined and demonstrate the linkage to the NIH Mission. The Division of Police strategic objectives support all four of the NIH agency goals, however the Division of Police is specifically linked with three of the four NIH Agency Goals as follows:
The DP’s mission statement and most of its strategic objectives are closely aligned with this Agency goal. It is the responsibility of the NIH Division of Police to . More specifically, the DP’s objectives in support of this responsibility include:
All of these objectives speak to the safety and security requirements of the NIH in order to .
NIH Security Plan
The NIH Security Plan (see Attachment C) is designed to address multiple levels of security and multiple entry points. This plan takes a “layering approach” to security on the Bethesda Campus beginning at the perimeter and providing additional “layers” of security in areas of vulnerability. The plan also defines the owners of each area by Branch. For example, because most of the perimeter security plan is staffed by Guard Operations, they are the owners of this layer, with support from the Police Operations Branch.
The NIH Security Plan is tightly linked with the Division’s Strategic Plan, although they are definitely not the same. The Strategic plan covers the “business” of the Division while the Security Plan addresses the technical aspects of providing security to the NIH population. The Strategic Plan covers the Division’s long term strategic goals while the Security Plan addresses the more operational issues related specifically to security issues. These plans are, however, inextricably linked. All of the Objectives in the Strategic Plan are focused on the security and safety of the NIH community and its assets. More specifically, the following objectives from the strategic plan explicitly refer to the environment:
ORS Strategic Plan
The ORS Strategic Plan is designed to address multiple services provided to the entire NIH community. The plan outlines four major themes or Core Values as well as well as strategic goals, outcomes and objectives. The Division of Police is linked to these themes goals and outcomes through various initiatives (detailed earlier). This linkage is documented in the definition of each of the Division of Police objectives. A summary of the Division’s linkage to the ORS plan is as follows:
Goal 1. “Providing Financial Stewardship: Provide financial stewardship across the ORS to ensure the appropriate use of all resources and maintain financial integrity while providing efficient and effective services and products that further the NIH’s ability to meet its mission.”
The Division of Police has four objectives and goals that support this goal including:
Goal 2. “Improving Human Capital Planning and Management: Recruit, hire and deploy a talented and diverse workforce that has the competencies to successfully achieve the ORS mission and goals.”
The Division of Police has two objectives that support this value including:
Goal 3. “Improving Accessibility of Education and Training: Implement an inclusive ORS training inventory and an ORS training site that captures internal and external training data to improve business operations and provide better customer service.”
The Division of Police has three objectives and goals that support this value including:
Goal 4. “Enhancing Communication and Collaboration with Stakeholders: Implement an enhanced communication strategy that increases awareness of what ORS does and provides accurate and timely information to stakeholders and ensures productive relationships with our partners.”
The Division of Police has five objectives and goals that support this value including:
OM (Administrative Management) Strategic Plan 2009-2011
The NIH Administrative Management Strategic Plan emphasizes four major goals and several objectives within each goal. The Division of Police’s Strategic Plan links with NIH Administrative Management Strategic Plan as follows:
1. Human Capital Planning and Management
The Division of Police places high value on the people who work in Division of Police. Officers and employees are the primary asset the Division offers in accomplishing our mission. We must focus attention on ensuring that we provide our people with the right tools, work-environment, and skill-set to be successful members of the Division of Police team. Therefore, one third of the Division’s strategic objectives are focused on its people. These include:
Improve the well-being of the Division of Police workforce
The Division of Police is committed to improving the culture and climate within the Division, including improving leadership-employee relations and adequately addressing and resolving personnel issues that arise. In addition, this objective focuses on ensuring leaders are properly trained in management skills. It is the intention of the Division to remove barriers to the well-being of its officers and employees to better enable a focus on its mission.
Maximize the use of automated performance management systems
In support of streamlining its operational processes, the Division of Police will be automating a number of paper-intensive, and people-intensive processes. These include processes such as requesting training, assigning tasks, and making staffing decisions. This combination of automated systems, or consoles, will offer both employees and leadership a more informed basis for making operational decisions.
Ensure KSAs of the workforce are in line with potential threats
The Division of Police must make sure that the key knowledge, skills and abilities of the Division’s workforce are aligned with the future safety and security needs of the NIH. The Division of Police will evaluate all new hires within the context of future needs, and will continuously evaluate its existing skill base to ensure the proper training courses or experiential assignments are made available. In addition, the Division will establish both a “Training Recommendations” committee and a “Training Standards” committee to ensure workforce alignment with strategic goals.
Improve Communications within the Division of Police
The Division of Police is committed to improving communications among its branches as well as between leadership and employees. The Division of Police will develop and implement an internal communications plan that will allow the Division’s managers and staff to communicate better with one another and to improve the availability and access to information by all employees.
2. Data Driven Decision-making
The Division of Police must continuously improve its business processes in large part because of the need to assign scarce resources properly. The Division cannot afford to engage in processes that are not streamlined or that may slow down response time. The majority of the DP’s operational improvements are, therefore, providing valid, easily available data to make informed decisions.
The Division of Police will realign its processes to ensure the elimination of barriers and redundancies. The Division’s focus must be on the ability to lessen the administrative burden through automation, and through standardizing procedures to better enable our officers and employees to not only perform their assigned duties, but also to anticipate and prepare for potential threats.
In addition, the Division of Police is committed to ensuring that the control assessments for risk areas identified by the Risk Management Senior Assessment Team are performed and corrective actions are taken.
In an ongoing effort to gain efficiencies, and in support of the Division’s People, the Division intends to maximize its decision making capability through automation.
The following objectives articulate the way in which the division is continuing to improve this focus on data-driven decision making: Learning and Growth Objective (Maximize the use of automated performance management systems); The Division of Police has begun the design and development of an automated file Management Information System. This system will provide a repository for information currently gathered manually and will provide supervisors and executives with much needed status reports regarding completion of assignments and tasks. The system is intended to provide several integrated modules including Training and IDPs, Task Management, Staffing Assignments, Inventory Management, Spending Plan Management, and Performance Plans and Readiness Tracking. When complete, the system will provide the Division with a “predictive dashboard” that will enable managers and staff to quickly identify potential problem areas and to reassign resources to optimize use.
This initiative will support also support risk management initiatives (see below) and should align platforms that provide data required for decision making.
3. NIH Risk Management
The Division of Police must also continuously manage risk properly. The Division cannot afford to engage in activities processes that are stove-piped or that put the NIH assets in any type of high risk situation or that may, in any way, slow down response time. The Division of Police is the responsible operational agent for the safety and security of the NIH research and the community that supports that research. The Division of Police will make every effort to carry out this responsibility in a manner that minimizes inconvenience to the NIH employees and visitors, while also being fiscally responsible to our stakeholders. The majority of the DP’s risk-focused operational improvements are, therefore, focused on three objectives:
Stay ahead of potential threats
The Division of Police will realign its processes to ensure the elimination of barriers and redundancies. The Division’s focus must be on the ability to lessen the administrative burden through automation, and through standardizing procedures to better enable our officers and employees to not only perform their assigned duties, but also to make better decisions required to anticipate and prepare for potential threats.
Provide for the Safety of the NIH tangible and intangible assets
The Division of Police is responsible for protecting both the researchers and their research from harm. We consider the work performed by the NIH research community to be “a national treasure,” and therefore entitled to the best possible security and safety resources to enable continued research.
Maximize safety with minimal inconvenience at the best price
The Division of Police recognizes that the level of safety and security required to protect the NIH may be seen as inconvenient or intrusive. It is the DP’s objective to offer the highest level of security and safety while minimizing the inconvenience to either employees or visitors. In addition, the Division will be cognizant of the cost of offering these services and will work to always provide services at the best possible price. The NIH Security Plan (see Appendix C) is designed to address multiple levels of security and multiple entry points. This plan takes a “layering approach” to security on the Bethesda Campus beginning at the perimeter and providing additional “layers” of security in areas of vulnerability. The plan also defines the owners of each area by Branch. For example, because most of the
perimeter security plan is staffed by Guard Operations, they are the owners of this layer, with support from the Police Operations branch. The NIH Security Plan is tightly linked with the Division’s Strategic Plan, although they are definitely not the same. The Strategic plan covers the “business” of the Division while the Security Plan addresses the technical aspects of providing security to the NIH population. The Strategic Plan covers the Division’s long term strategic goals while the Security Plan addresses the more operational issues related specifically to security issues. These plans are, however, inextricably linked. All of the Objectives in the Strategic Plan are focused on the security and safety of the NIH community and its assets.
More specifically, the following objectives from the strategic plan explicitly refer to the environment:
4. Communications
The Division of Police fully supports an ongoing effort to improve communications. This includes both internal and external communications however internal communications must be the starting point and must be evaluated as an ongoing effort. The majority of the DP’s communication focused improvements are, therefore, included in the following objectives:
Improved Communication
This objective summarizes a number of tasks and subtasks focused on the primary related Division of Police People, Learning, and Growth objective;
(Improve Communications). This objective is ongoing and is targeted for both immediate short, mid, and long-term improvements. Continuing efforts are being made to work on subtasks to improve communications both within the Division of Police as well as communications externally with stakeholders and customers through the implementation of structured open forums, to be held on a defined schedule, and which provide training as well as opportunity for input and feedback.
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Summary
In summary, the Division of Police has defined its Strategic Plan in the context of the security environment and the organizational environment. This includes establishing tangible links with other strategic plans and guidance, such as the ORS Objectives, OM Strategic Goals, Guidance from Homeland Security, NIH mission and direction, and the NIH Security Plan. The Division of Police has also aligned its three branches to its Strategic Plan to ensure singleness of effort.
Not only has the Division of Police strategy been articulated and aligned, but the tactics for achieving this strategy has been identified to ensure that the Division’s staff is working on tasks that will improve the probability of meeting both its Division-level and Branch-level objectives. Further, the Division of Police has aligned the initiatives with broader organizational initiatives. These alignment efforts have provided clarity in the development of this Strategic Plan and in the detailed decomposition and definition of the way in which the plan is to be executed through the initiatives.
This document, along with the supporting Appendices, will be circulated for comment to the Division Executive staff, the Division of Police officers and employees, and related NIH, ORS, and OM stakeholders. These comments will be incorporated into the document as appropriate prior to final issuance and distribution. This document will be reexamined and updated at regular intervals to ensure currency and relevance. As major changes in the guiding plans or documents are received, the Division of Police Strategic Plan will be evaluated for potential revision. Likewise, this plan will be assessed based on external factors affecting the security environment, and based on internal factors affecting policy or organizational structure. This plan will, at minimum, be reviewed in its entirety for potential refresh on an annual basis at the beginning of each fiscal year.
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