U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Terrorism and Local Law Enforcement: A Multidimensional Challenge for the Twenty-First Century

NCJ Number
171917
Author(s)
P M McVey
Date Published
1997
Length
181 pages
Annotation
This volume explains the role of local law enforcement personnel and agencies in addressing terrorism, with emphasis on the need for local police agencies to consider it essential and not just important to use traditional law enforcement methods in dealing with this phenomenon in all but the most extreme cases.
Abstract
The text states that law enforcement can handle situations with less social damage and can preserve the peace that they are sworn to uphold if they change the current philosophy and reduce the need to enter into the paramilitary mode of operations when dealing with terrorist incidents. Individual chapters outline the problem as it relates to local law enforcement and affects the public, explain terrorism and compares it with related phenomena, summarize the history and recent evolution of domestic and international terrorism, and discuss potential future developments. Additional chapters explain how police agencies can address contemporary guerrilla operations in their local jurisdiction through risk assessment, risk management, and proactive and reactive policies and procedures. The author is a deputy sheriff in Los Angeles County (Calif.). Author and subject indexes, appended figures, and 41 references