U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff called on Americans to be more trusting of government efforts to keep the country safe and secure borders last night at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In his speech, titled “Why Washington Doesn’t Work,” Chertoff listed “anecdotalism, parochialism and trustability” as the obstacles Homeland Security faces in attempting to secure the U.S. borders.

The public suffers from anecdotalism and tends to focus on particular negative anecdotes about security measures rather than focusing on the greater good, he said.

Parochialism, he said, is the “not in my backyard” mindset some have when they favor but not at their own interests.

Chertoff cited an extreme case of parochialism in which a landowner on the U.S.-Mexico border attempted to sue the Department of Homeland Security because the fence that was put up on neighboring property caused illegal immigrants to cross into the United States on his property.

He said it is difficult for landowners in similar situations because they are directly inconvenienced by the tightened border security, while the benefits go to the entire country and not just the landowners specifically.

Chertoff said the public’s tendency to doubt the positive long-term effects of certain security measures is due to a lack of “trustability.”

It is hard for the public to keep a conscientious eye on the long-term effects of Department of Homeland Security measures regarding this type of work, he said.

He called U.S. security measures particularly lax and said more than 8,000 documents could be used to cross the U.S. border illegally before Sept. 11.

Because national security threats were still hypothetical in early 2000, security measures now in place “would never have gotten off the ground,” he said.

In a post-Sept. 11 setting, the Homeland Security Department attempts to be as proactive as possible in addressing possible threats, he said.

“We don’t want to say, We’ll deal with that when we see it on the horizon,” he said. “By that time, it’s far too late.”

Chertoff said because there have been no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, it is easy for the general public to fall into the lull of a pre-attack mindset by claiming security now is too tight.

He said the public should set aside personal interests and trust in the long-term benefits that these security measures will create.

“There is no magic bullet, no perfect solution,” he said. “But that can’t be a reason to not do anything.”

Kennedy School of Government Dean David Ellwood said Chertoff’s job is a thankless one.

“There are some jobs that if you do everything right, nobody notices,” Ellwood said. “If you do one thing wrong, everybody blames you.”

Harvard graduate student Toufiq Rahim said Homeland Security policies have not adapted enough to deal with specific cases.

“I think he neglects what happens to people falsely targeted, their consequences,” Rahim said. “And while they do address false positives, there are many that go unaddressed.”

“He also addressed short-term consequences versus long-term gains but he did not address any long-term consequences,” he said.