Protecting Your Community From Terrorism: Strategies for Local Law Enforcement, Volume 5: Partnerships To Promote Homeland Security

• NCJ Number: 212428
• Author(s): Heather J. Davies; Martha R. Plotkin
• Date Published: November 2005
• Length: 108 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2002-HS-WX-K001
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
• Corporate Author: Police Executive Research Forum (PERF)
• Sale Source: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded December 21, 2005.

Annotation

This fifth white paper in a series on "Protecting Your Community From Terrorism: Strategies for Local law Enforcement" summarizes discussions at an executive session on forging and maintaining partnerships between the Federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and local, State, and tribal law enforcement agencies in efforts to combat terrorism.

Abstract

Following an introductory chapter, a chapter reviews the DHS components' missions and responsibilities. It indicates the difficulty of developing adequate measures for evaluating success in countering the terrorist threat and in building an integrated national structure. This is followed by a chapter that outlines local and State enforcement responsibilities, along with examples of homeland security collaboration, in order to show that the variations and complexity of organization at the local and State levels make it difficult to standardize partnership structures. The chapter identifies some of the many stakeholders that law enforcement agencies at all levels of government must engage in enhancing infrastructure protection and public safety. It also clarifies the challenges that tribal, State, and local law enforcement face in addressing the terrorist threat while continuing traditional public safety duties. The next chapter provides examples of ways local and State agencies are using DHS resources and training to enhance their counterterrorism capabilities. Issues discussed are the need for dual use, flexible grants and resources, and the need for regional approaches that support law enforcement efforts. Also discussed are training gaps for street-level officers. A chapter then addresses problems in information sharing and communication issues among agencies. It also reviews the DHS alert systems and how they are used by local law enforcement agencies. The white paper concludes with recommendations for local, State, tribal, and Federal law enforcement agencies as they partner with DHS in finding a new path that integrates counterterrorism measures with traditional public safety responsibilities. Appended supplementary information