DHS CHANGES MAP OF MILWAUKEE

Will New Borders Help Region Secure Funds?

By Michael Horne

In a little-noticed release, the Department of Homeland Security announced January 3rd 2006 that it has created a new "risk-based formula for Urban Areas Security Initiative Grants."

The grants would total $765 million in direct funding for high threat urban areas.

The good news / bad news is that Milwaukee is one of the 46 "Candidate Urban Areas."

The definition of Milwaukee and of many other cities on the list has changed, perhaps in ways that might not favor Milwaukee.

The original formula included only the City of Milwaukee. According to the new formula, the "Geographic Area Captured in the Data Count" now includes "Milwaukee and a 10-mile buffer extending from the city border."

The 10-mile buffer is included in all community descriptions, including such vast ones as the Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington Area which is described as "Arlington, Carrollton, Dallas, Fort Worth, Garland, Grand Prairie, Irving, Mesquite, Plano and a 10-mile buffer extending from the border of the combined area."

Imagine! Dallas and Fort Worth in the same breath and after the same pot of money!

Such agglomerations as the above encompass 95 cities with populations of 100,000 or more.

Milwaukeeworld.com asked Joyce Witebsky, a Geographic Information Specialist at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee to draw up a map showing "Milwaukee and a 10-mile buffer extending from the city border," and this is what she came up with.

As you can see, a number of communities besides Milwaukee can apply for funds. "We will continue to champion funding on the basis of risk and need," DHS says, which probably will not work to the benefit of our area.

Recipients of grants are determined "through a robust risk formula that considers three primary variables: consequence, vulnerability and threat. Factors such as the presence of international borders, population and population density, the location of critical infrastructure, former mutual aid cooperation, law inforcement investigations and enforcement activity are considered in correlation with the risk formula for Urban Areas Security Initiative determinations."

You've got some steep competition there, River Hills! -- But you're on the map.