'Local Law Enforcement’s Role in Anti-terrorism and Home Land Security\r'

'The intensity of the September 11 attacks on Ameri laughingstock soil direct to massive destruction of property, besides exit thousands of innocent civilians dead. To many, the attacks revea take just how vulnerable the unify States was to the cruel hand of global act of terrorist act. The lessons learnt from the tragical incidences prompted immediate action on the let out of the national official authorities, culminating in what became k nowadaysn as the war on terror whose boilersuit objective was to completely eliminate, or at least minimize the potential jeopardy pose by terrorists and terrorist organizations spread all(a) over the globe.\r\nBeginning then, the fight against terrorist act has become a shared duty, with dissimilar protective covering, schooling and natural rectitude enforcement agencies involved in checking terrorist activity. Some of the major responsibilities include draw included pedagogy on technologies much(prenominal)(prenominal) as air borne insertion equipment, rescuing hostages and use anti-terrorist weaponry. Although intimately of these devour been assigned to narrow down travail forces such as the legions and the Delta force, a captious rating overly depicts the topical anesthetic enforcement agencies as instrumental in fighting terrorist act and enhancing national security.\r\nIndeed, the attacks led to a signifi gitt redefinition of the role that federal, state, as comfortably as topical anesthetic anaesthetic anaesthetic uprightness enforcement authorities ought to play in as remote as the delayion and interdict of terrorist activity in the U. S. is concerned (Middlemiss and Gupta, 2007). as rise up the traditional role of acting as small incident managers and first responders, these agencies energise been assigned a in the altogether assess: that of handling the uncertainties occasioned by the terror of terrorism.\r\nThe case Played By Local natural law Agencies in the Fight ag ainst Terrorism. As fence to the military whose main preoccupation is that of protect the country from eternal aggression, the main cosmos of topical anesthetic anaesthetic law enforcement agencies lies in the furnish of homeland security. Due to the legion(predicate) security connections that state and local officials abide realised with institutions such as the Intelligence companionship and the society in general, they usually scat to stomach an upper hand in detecting and preventing terrorist activity (Sauter and Carafano, 2005).\r\nIt is in turn over of this reality that governments within the state and local levels sop up since embarked on an initiative of establishing antiterrorism and counterterrorism programs. The reason entails the defensive or passive strategies sedulous to curb terrorism, while the latter involves proactive measures such as pursuing terrorist perpetrators and supporters (Sauter and Carafano, 2005, p. 261).\r\nIn magnetic core, the failur e of such initiative to coif in equipping law enforcement force out with the basic as well as specialized skills of fighting terrorism implies that the local law enforcers assisted by some other personnel would be the in the headspring should a terrorist attack occur. A preliminary exam study carried out by the jurisprudence Executive Research Forum in 2001 found that the local police vie a rattling responsibility in critical incidence reaction, information and experience sharing, enhancement of participation stability afterward a major incident, and the establishment of multi-agency task forces (Police Executive Research Forum, 2003).\r\nHowever, one of the most remarkable findings of the survey was the strong feeling expressed by these law enforcement agents: that they were now faced with an expanded role of terrorism legal profession in such subfields as increase community policing systems, intelligence host and information-sharing with the civilian fraternity. Never theless, training and conversancy with the constitution of global terrorism as well as the need for upgrading terrorist attack-preparedness emerged as critical components if these agencies are to perform a greater role in antiterrorism initiatives.\r\nSince 2001, the role of local law enforcement agencies in the fight against terrorism has been transformed from a relatively amorphous form into a more hard-hitting one with specific responsibilities and tasks. One of the areas in which the local police have move to play is in the bowl of terrorism prevention. In essence, the very compound spirit of terrorism and terrorist groups arrives it impossible for the federal law enforcers to effectively handle the threat posed by global terrorism.\r\nWorking in close collaboration with the local communities, the local law enforcers have played a critical role of collecting vital information on personalities suspected to have links to terrorist groups. A critical evaluation depicts thes e agencies as better placed to make a objective assessment of community security timiditys and concerns identified as critical in effective fathering of intelligence information, curiously considering the ability of community policing to engage citizens, bring up collective problem solving, and encourage information sharing based on vulgar trust (Middlemiss and Gupta, 2007).\r\nBy receiving and sharing information with state as well as federal agents while at the same time maintaining confidentiality especially in audience to sensitive information, the local police have been, and continue to be of great protagonist in the fight against terrorism. Other terrorism prevention initiatives that they could be involved in include the realisation, evaluation and lessening of the terrorist threat posed to local targets (Sauter and Carafano, 2005). Another domain in which the local law enforcement agencies should be actively involved in is in the domain of critical incident preventio n, preparations and chemical reaction ().\r\nOne of the traditional roles in which the local police have been involved in is preparing and promptly responding to disasters such as Katrina. With the increasing threat of global terrorism however, such an approach has similarly been transferred to terrorist operations. Such efforts have included initiatives geared towards the derivation of archaean warning systems to detect the possibility of a terrorist attack. However, this role has also been expanded to security operations enhancement as well as establishing emergency medical teams.\r\nBesides, they have been involved in the establishment and murder of local critical incident plans all important(p) in the evaluation of the motley waves of municipal and global terrorism (). However, the successful steering of terrorist scenes requires that the local police lap in close collaboration with state and federal agencies. Although numerous precautionary measures have been undertaken to prevent terrorist attacks similar to 9/11, the possibility of other attack, either by a outside or domestic organization can not be ruled.\r\nAs witnessed in 2001, such deadly attacks cause incomparable accidental injury on those involved or their relatives. Thus, the local law enforcement agencies have to work closely with the local leaderships and the community in general in ensuring that such individuals discover from post-terrorist trauma. This could involve adopting effective strategies to alleviate the fear of potential attacks in future. In addition, the local police have to brace themselves with the complex security expectations that the affected community may place, including the proviso of information and other tautologic services (Lyons, 2002).\r\nBesides the maintenance of work force skilled in handling various terrorist challenges, local law jurisdictions have the responsibility of availing the resources necessary to implement antiterrorism and counterterror ism initiatives. Indeed, the reallocation of actual resources as well as the identification of new ones goes a long delegacy in improving the security-preparedness of state and local officials (Sauter and Carafano, 2005). Such resources have been deployed to upgrade the capabilities of senile security units in addition to establishing new ones.\r\nHowever, majority of the state and local authorities have increasingly faced numerous counterterrorism budget constrains which have posed as significant obstacles in the initiatives aimed at marking up security measures. A emergence of these security initiatives have been funded by the federal government. Notably, the establishment of the Department of Homeland aegis was aimed at consolidating most of the federal assistance inclined to homeland security within the new department under the way of State and Local Government Coordination and planning (Sauter and Carafano, 2005, p. 64). Some of the activities currently funded include t he provision of equipment as well as training of officers on domestic counterterrorist procedures and activities. Nevertheless, the limited monetary resource availed have sometimes precipitated a reduction of existing security functions, for instance, redirecting local intelligence fraternity from the traditional role of unraveling organised crime to that of countering terrorist activity.\r\nConclusion. Although relative calm has been witnessed since the 2001 attacks on American soil, the fight against terrorism is far from over. This calls for concerted efforts amongst all the stakeholders involved. Based on past experience, the local law enforcement agencies can indeed play a diametrical role in the antiterrorism and counterterrorism initiatives. These not exclusively include the initiation of preventive strategies, simply also extend to prompt response during actual attacks, as well trauma management.\r\nHowever, various factors continue to present unsurmountable challenges in the realization of this noble mission. Particularly, a significant number of local law enforcement agencies still grapple with the reality of maintaining a balance between the fight against terrorism on the one hand and deterrence, and prevention of other crimes on the other. In essence therefore, greater federal support and cooperation is all important(p) in supplementing the efforts of local law enforcement agencies.\r\n'