Maryland Governor’s Annual Report on Homeland Security, 2005

The Governor’s Annual Report on Homeland Security documents Maryland’s 2005 accomplishments under Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., produced by the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security (GOHS) under Director Dennis R. Schrader. As home to key federal installations, a major port, and critical highway and rail routes adjacent to the nation’s capital, Maryland built a comprehensive all-hazards homeland-security strategy.

The report organizes that strategy around seven fundamental areas: information sharing and intelligence; law enforcement; border and transportation security; emergency preparedness and response; health and medical readiness; critical infrastructure protection; and public safety communications.

Among the accomplishments cited: Maryland became the first state accredited under a federal information-sharing program enabling access to a federally maintained database of private-sector critical-infrastructure information; earned national recognition for its collaborative all-hazards approach to regional response planning; and developed the only comprehensive continuity-of-operations (COOP) planning guide in the country, which served as a national model.