NCJ Number
209331
Journal
Crime & Justice International Volume: 20 Issue: 84 Dated: January/February 2005 Pages: 4-7
Editor(s)
Joseph D. Serio
Date Published
January 2005
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article offers an overview of the intelligence community and how it is responding to the threat of weapons of mass destruction.
Abstract
While there have been reasons that the law enforcement community and the intelligence community have been kept separate, the recent threats to homeland security demand a unified approach to national security efforts. The article begins by outlining the intelligence community, which is headed by the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). America’s intelligence community includes 15 member agencies that all strive toward the same broad, strategic goals. One of the most salient goals of the intelligence community is to provide intelligence support to law enforcement. This is accomplished in a number of ways, including the meeting of the Law Enforcement Working Group (LEWG) that joins intelligence members with Federal-level law enforcement officials and State and local representatives. One of the most pressing goals of the intelligence community is to tackle the problem of weapons of mass destruction (WMD); the strategies employed by the intelligence community toward this goal are described and include outreach efforts that would join the intelligence and law enforcement communities together in the fight against WMD. The outreach effort culminated in a series of workshops focusing on various aspects of the problem, such as infrastructure security and penetration of terrorist cells. Recommendations are being formed on the basis of the knowledge generated at these workshops; it is expected that recommendations will focus on a variety of organizational models to bridge the intelligence and law enforcement communities and will underscore the importance of implementing national security strategies in ways that meet the needs of local communities. Exhibits