Local police response to terrorism

Abstract 

This paper will take more of its discussion on the effect of terrorism on the country. In the 21st century, terrorism, particularly the attack on September 11 in the United States, profoundly affected the nature of policing. Even though the police have been extremely working extra hard to mitigate terrorism in the United States, the magnitude and subsequent attacks of the group globally indicated that conventional tactics of the police were no longer adequate. Due to the increased cases of terrorism and the daily advancement of technology, the police will need to change their tactics and start to work with other agencies in the country so that they can be able to surveille the suspected terrorists in the country. Given the threat of terrorism in the current world, the police have taken steps to prepare themselves to deal with the recent advancement of terrorist tactics. Preventing future acts of terrorism and organizing a massive response to the act has become a priority for the local police to mitigate the continuous cases of terrorism.

Local Police Response to Terrorism

Overview

It is well known that the advancement in technology has made it difficult for the local police in the United States and across the world to respond to the issue of terrorism effectively. Over the years, American communities have felt the wrenching pain of domestic terrorists, which has made the local police in the country look for an effective way to respond to the issue. Based on my assessment, it is clear that terrorism today emerges due to the following factors such as ethnicity, racism, and religion. These actors of terrorism have different motivations, but they all focus their violence on a certain segment of the community in the country. The incident of September 11, 2001, in the United States, changed the aspect of police departments as they were to change their tactics to deal with the increasing cases of terrorism. It is clear that as the threat from terrorism continues to evolve, local police responses must continue to improve in order to keep the country safe. The change in tactics among the terrorist have made federal agencies such as the FBI and U.S secret service work together to protect the United States from further terrorist attacks (Paton & Violanti, 2018). Local police, most of the time, plays a vital role, such as helping to identify terrorist operating or living in their jurisdictions. They also helped ensure that they offer protection to the vulnerable groups targeted and have the first response to terror attacks. It is clear that the terrorism threats come from various sources organized outside the country, lone attackers, and inside the country. But regardless of the source of terrorism, the local police have a significant mandate of identifying those planning to carry out acts of violence and responding to it on time. The local police officers are always connected to the communities they serve. For that reason, they can identify individuals who may embrace the extremist ideology and pose a threat of violence against individuals in the community or country at large. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss how local police respond to terrorism and its economic, social, and legal implications. It will also incorporate the role of university core values related to local response to terrorism.

Local police response to terrorism

Terrorism has a great impact on the country and people's lives, both socially and economically. Given the effect of terrorism on society and the country at large, the local police need to recognize the importance of community relationships. As for the police, to ensure that they can respond to terrorism effectively, they will need to work closely with the community to identify individuals who pose threats to national security. With the advancement in technology, terrorists have been able in the current society to change the ways they attack the country, thus indicating that police have an essential role in ensuring that they continue preventing terrorism in different ways. The police are in an excellent position to continue learning the tactics used by the terrorist to safeguard the vulnerable targets in their jurisdictions are protected. It has also been indicated that the local police agencies have taken greater national security roles and responsibilities to ensure that terrorism is mitigated in the country. Also, due to meet the new tactics of terrorists, law enforcement in the U.S at all government levels has ensured they share information and resources to detect and destroy terrorist cells before they can strike again. Since the case of 2001, the police have enhanced different strategies to effectively deal with terrorism in the country (Waxman, 2009). For instance, all law enforcement agencies in the U.S have been able to coordinate different data and intelligence sources to understand the operation of the terrorist activities in the country. There are many tools local police use to manage data and intelligence within the community and across the country. In recent years, the advancement in technology has helped the police to be able to gather enough information using technologies such as records management systems and computer-aided dispatch systems. Using the technological tools, the local police, in partnership with other agencies, has collected numerous data concerning terrorist groups, thus improving their response to terrorism in the community and country. Further, the local police have been at the forefront of ensuring that it works with the community and other essential government departments to respond to terrorism issues in the country effectively. Thus, it is clear that since the incident in 2001 in the U.S, local police agencies have been strategical in responding to terrorism in the country (the United States, 2012). Although the local police have not been able to develop an effective way of responding to the issue of terrorism in the U.S and across the world, collaboration and trust have helped the agency prevent, prepare, and recover people from these horrific events. It is clear that in 21st-century, terrorism has become one of the greatest threats to the right of many lives, but the different stakeholders in partnership with the police agencies have ensured that the terrorist is dealt with in an effective way (Paton & Violanti, 2018). September 11 pushed the counterterrorism agenda in the United States down to local police to ensure that government works with the community to mitigate increased cases of terrorism in the country. But what seems to be more important is that the local police were preferred as the most suited to respond to terrorism effectively due to their superior familiarity with their local communities. The key mandate of the local police in the U.S was to provide services, maintain order and patrol the community. As a result of this more comprehensive mandate, the local police collected and processed information about the community, which helped them respond to terrorism effectively.

Today police have changed tactics in responding to terrorism by focusing on modern policing strategy trends that include problem-oriented policing and community policing. To be able to use this response to deal with the issue of terrorism in the country, the local police need to ensure that it fosters both reactive and proactive relationships with local social agencies and community organizations and builds effective community relationships. By doing all this, the local police will be able to respond to the issue of terrorism effectively. Also, the local police have been embracing familiarity with the local community as a valuable asset in fulfilling counterterrorism functions by ensuring that it is informed about each activity within the community.

Impacts of Terrorism on the economy, social or legal

Terrorism has excellent implications for the country's economy and social and legal factors. For instance, as I have explained above, the local police must ensure that the community is safe. The increased cases of terrorism have greatly affected the economy in both developed and developing countries. It is clear from different research I have done about the impact of terrorism on the country that to respond to terrorism issues, they need to focus on building strong criminal justice elements. This means that it must be guided by a normative legal framework and embedded in core principles and respect for human rights. Given that the perpetrators of terrorism do it for different reasons, it is essential to be dealt with effectively to reduce such instances in the community. From the scenario of 2000 to 2018, it is estimated that terrorism cost the world economy $855 billion (Sandler & Enders, 2018). It is a clear loss of human life and injuries due to terrorism that causes significant economic disruption to the country. The economic implications of terrorism to the country can be measured based on the value of lives lost, the destruction of public and private properties, and the disability that results from the injuries. Apart from the immediate economic cost of terrorism to the country, it also derails its economic growth because it incurs threats to investors and tourists to visit the country due to fear of their safety. Given the rising level of terrorism in the U.S, measuring the economic impact of terrorism on the government is vital because it helps law enforcement and the country at large develop a strategic way of dealing with terrorism in the country. Understanding the economic impact of terrorism helps the government of the day know how to allocate its financial resources to counterterrorism activities and programs. In addition, the economic implication of terrorism is also important to the government and local police because it informs the policymakers on the essential way they can use to mitigate the effect of terrorism in the country. Therefore, terrorism has a significant impact on the country's economy. For that, the government needs to find an essential way of ensuring that their law enforcement personnel are well equipped to respond to it effectively. The country with the highest level of violent extremism, like Iraq and Somalia in Africa, have had weaker economic growth than other countries. There is a significant difference in GDP between the countries with high and low levels of terrorism.

Also, apart from economic sabotage, terrorism has great implications for people's lives because it is designed to instill fear and disturb societies' general well-being through acts of violence. For instance, the acts of September 11, 2001, terrorism in the United States led to widespread anxiety among people in the country, thus making people in the country live in depression and fear. The aftermath of the September 11 incident in the U.S created varying levels of anxiety linked to the perception of future threats of terrorism and downstream economic changes. Although there is limited study on the impact of terrorism on people's lives, it is clear that the aftermath of terrorism events in the country always leaves people with fear and anxiety. For this reason, the local police and other law enforcement agencies in the U.S need to work together to mitigate the economic and social impacts of terrorist activity in the country (Clarke & Newman, 2007). The social impacts of terrorism have impacted communities and societies on multiple levels. Individuals who have faced the incident of terrorist attacks in the past are affected with symptoms such as anxiety and depression. It is clear the social implication of terrorism has long-term consequences for people's lives as it always makes most of them live in fear. Also, it has been indicated by different researchers that the extreme cases of violence among people always lead to people changing their way of life. As most people may limit their way of life due to fear. For instance, after the incident in the U.S, citizens feared to fall the victims of violence something that made them change their way of socializing. The fear of people falling victim to terrorism leads to many of them changing their social lives, contributing to negative socialization. Thus, from this view, it is clear that terrorism has a more significant negative impact on people's lives, and for that reason, the law enforcement agencies in the country need to ensure they have an essential strategy that enables them to respond to it effectively. I think for the police to be able to deal effectively with the case of terrorism and make people live well both socially and economically, there is a need to ensure they respond to the issue of terrorism strategically by involving both the community and other vital stakeholders. Also, terrorist activities have legal implications because they always make government enhance harsh laws to the people to respond to the issue effectively. To ensure that the cases of terrorism are answered effectively, the U.S and foreign countries have established a legal framework to deal with terrorist activities in an essential way that can help the perpetrators of the activities not repeat the incident anytime in their lives. The legal action taken towards the terrorists today is designed to handle the act of terrorism as enmity towards humanity and thus needs to take serious action against those involved. 

Role of University Core Value as It related to Local Response to Terrorism

The University's core values are important because they always help communicate and build the atmosphere you want to foster. Apart from University being an educational institution, it plays a significant role in making a person diversified and learning about life. The University, in most instances, has ensured it trains people on the importance of safety life and how they can be able to make the local community effectively respond to terrorism effects. In what seems to be an essential factor is that knowledge acquired at University can help ensure that individuals can remain informed about any incident of terrorism in society. The University's core value is always to train people to be vigilant in life, which helps to respond to terrorism in the country effectively. Like any other institution, universities have been at the forefront to ensure that the community is well established to prevent the horrific cases of terrorism. Therefore, the University's core value is important to the student and local police and other law enforcement agencies because it provides a model built on respect and collaboration. The University's core value has helped respond to terrorism because people acquired knowledge on how to deal with issues that incur threats to communities' lives.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the coordination among the law enforcement agencies has helped the local police deal with the issues of terrorism in the U.S. Due to the vast diversity of U.S police institutions and communities, the country has been able to deal with the ever-changing nature of terrorism threats. Although terrorism activities have been indicated to have some significant implications for the country's economy and social factors, local police and other security bodies have ensured that it mitigates the increased cases of terrorism in the country. It has also been indicated that advancement in technology has enabled the local police to develop new ways of dealing with terrorism in the country by ensuring that it improves the way it handles information and investigates the cases related to terrorism in the country (Straub, 2021). Given the advent of the internet and the high mobility of the population, the local police have been required to corporate with other law enforcement agencies in the country to prevent cases of terrorism-related activities in the community and country at large. Further, it has been shown that local police used different strategies to ensure it maintains a significant approach to responding to the terrorism-related issues in the country. Even though there is no single way that has been indicated on local police can use to respond to terrorism, the coordination and use of technology have helped the agency to deal with the increased cases of terrorism in the country effectively. From the current technological advancement, terrorism has remained an ever-changing phenomenon that requires local police to enhance prevention-focused responses. It is also clear that due to increased threats of terrorism, law enforcement from the state, territorial, local, and campus-level partnered to ensure that they respond effectively concerning the issue of terrorism in the country. 

References

Clarke, R. V., & Newman, G. R. (2007). Police and the prevention of terrorism. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice, 1(1), 9-20.

Paton, D., & Violanti, J. M. (2018). Law enforcement response to terrorism: The role of the resilient police organization. International journal of emergency mental health.

Sandler, T., & Enders, W. (2018). Economic consequences of terrorism in developed and developing countries: An overview. Terrorism, economic development, and political openness, 17, 1-43.

Straub, F. (2021). The importance of community policing in preventing terrorism. Retrieved April 14, 2022, from https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/importance-community-policing-preventing-terrorism

The United States. (2012).  Department of Justice. Office of Community Oriented Policing Services. Local law enforcement responds to terrorism: Lessons in prevention and preparedness. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.

Waxman, M. C. (2009). Police and national security: American local law enforcement and counterterrorism after 9/11. J. Nat'l Sec. L. & Poly, 3, 377.