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Best Practices Collection

Information promoted by the department as being correct or most effective.

  • Required Software Installation for using the Trusted Tester Test Process for Applications

    This guide provides guidance on how to install the required testing software that will be used by Trusted Testers following the Trusted Tester Test Process for Applications.

  • Title VI Overview and Requirements at the Department of Homeland Security

    The DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) oversees enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. CRCL coordinates a federally assisted compliance program, and provides guidance and technical assistance to Department recipients to help organizations understand their obligations under Title VI and related civil rights authorities.

  • Best Practices for Protecting Privacy, Civil Rights & Civil Liberties in Unmanned Aircraft Systems Programs

    The development of a new technology, significant improvement of a current technology, or the new application of an existing technology often results in concerns about the impact on individual privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.  The integration of government and commercial unmanned aircraft systems into the National Airspace System by 2015, as required by the Federal Aviation Administration Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, has prompted questions about how this might impact individual rights.  In this regard, CRCL, Privacy, and CBP jointly established the DHS Unmanned Aircraft Systems Privacy, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Working Group in September 2012 to “provide leadership to the homeland security enterprise by clarifying the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties legal and policy issues surrounding government use of [Unmanned Aircraft Systems].”  The Working Group drafted the best practices.  

  • National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Research and Development Plan

    The purpose of this National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Research and Development Plan (hereafter referred to as the National CISR R&D Plan or the Plan) is to identify National R&D Priority Areas that inform R&D investments, promote innovation, and guide research activities across the critical infrastructure community. The critical infrastructure community includes public and private critical infrastructure owners and operators; Federal departments and agencies, including SSAs; State, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments and regional entities; and other organizations from the private and nonprofit sectors, including research and educational institutions and, in some cases, international partners and organizations. Future CISR R&D activities should be driven by continued collaborative efforts aimed at strengthening the security and resilience of critical infrastructure.

  • File a Civil Rights Complaint

    If you wish to file a civil rights complaint with the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL), please download the fillable complaint form below and e-mail, fax, or mail the completed form back to CRCL.

  • Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations from American Muslims

    This memorandum outlines recommendations from a wide variety of American Muslim leaders regarding the difficult terrain of terminology.

  • Moving Towards Credentialing Interoperability: Case Studies at the State, Local, and Regional Levels

    Credentialing is a system by which identification cards or other tokens are used to authenticate a person and transmit skills, qualifications, and other attributes associated with that identity. Interoperability, in the credentialing context, provides the capability for a jurisdiction to access information and trust its legitimacy in order to make decisions about granting access and privileges.

  • The Risk Management Process for Federal Facilities: An Interagency Security Committee Standard

    This Interagency Security Committee Standard defines the criteria and processes that those responsible for the security of a facility should use to determine its facility security level and provides an integrated, single source of physical security countermeasures for all nonmilitary Federal facilities. The Standard also provides guidance for customization of the countermeasures for Federal facilities.

  • Sample Letters from AllClear ID

    The following are a sample of the letters that have been mailed by AllClear ID.  Please note, not every letter is the same, depending on the circumstances.  The letter will have the name of Catherine Emerson, representing DHS, but will not be signed. If you have questions about the letter you received, please contact your component Privacy Officer.

  • Guidance for Accommodating Religious Beliefs in DHS Policies Requiring Fingerprinting or Photographic Identification

    There are many circumstances in which the Department, in the execution of its missions, requires individuals to pose for or provide a photograph or provide fingerprints. This guidance outlines accommodating religious beliefs in DHS policies when fingerprinting or photographic evidence in required.

    These documents outline guidance for accommodating religious beliefs in DHS policies requiring fingerprinting or photographic identification. The work underlying the memo was done by the Religious Accommodation Working Group I.