The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday unveiled its new Office of Homeland Security Statistics (OHSS), which aims to advance DHS’s statistical reporting and analysis capabilities.
The new office said on Nov. 9 it plans to begin releasing its initial sets of data in the coming weeks and throughout fiscal year 2024, including a report on Federal cybersecurity incidents.
“The new office’s scope has broadened from an exclusive focus on immigration data to begin covering all DHS mission domains,” the agency’s press release notes. “With annual, semi-annual, and monthly reports, OHSS’ work in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 will include data releases on law enforcement, international trade, cybersecurity, airport screening, emergency response to federal disasters, and maritime response operations.”
According to DHS, the OHSS will conduct statistical reporting and analysis departmentwide, support evidence-based policymaking and data-driven decision making, and, working with DHS’s chief data officer, oversee the development of enterprise-wide data standards.
“In establishing the Office of Homeland Security Statistics, we will begin releasing data more quickly, with greater granularity, and covering a broader scope of DHS activities,” said Marc Rosenblum, a DHS statistical official who will lead OHSS. “DHS does incredibly important work, and the OHSS team is committed to our piece of the mission, which is to foster transparency and data-driven homeland security decision-making by analyzing and disseminating timely, objective DHS data and statistics. The launch of OHSS is a testament to the Secretary’s leadership and his commitment to maturing the Department’s use of data.”
OHSS will aggregate and collect data from DHS operational components and other sources and work directly with senior career statistical officials in the operational components to validate and publish data on a pre-determined schedule. As a result of this process, public stakeholders will have access to quality data in a timely and consistent manner, the department said.
Planned publications for FY2024 include law enforcement’s use of force incidents; intellectual property rights seizures in international trade; emergency management disaster deployments; screening at airport security operations; maritime response operations; Federal cybersecurity incidents; and a dozen immigration statistics reports.
By establishing the OHSS, the Department is delivering on the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to transparency.
“The Department of Homeland Security touches the lives of more members of the public on a daily basis than any other federal department, and increasing the transparency, efficiency, and sophistication of our work has been my priority since day one,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.
“Opening the Office of Homeland Security Statistics is a milestone in that effort and a significant step forward in our work to modernize the Department,” he said. “Data-driven decision making is an integral part of everything we do, and this new office will inform our policymaking, enhance our law enforcement and investigative operations, and allow us to distribute resources, including grants, more effectively. Our increased transparency will inform the American people as we work to fulfill our security and safety mission, while safeguarding privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.”
In conjunction with the launch of OHSS, the department announced a new website which it pledged will be easy to navigate and eventually include a tool to explore data by region.
