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Terrorism and Law Enforcement

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TERRORISM AND LAW ENFORCEMENT

LAURENCE LONGACRE

AMERICAN MILITARY UNIVERSITY

CMRJ203

Abstract

We live in a new world; it is a world where there is the ever growing threat of terrorism.

As a result law enforcement has had to change the way it does things in order to respond to

the terrorist threat. How has law enforcement evolved in order to respond to the ever changing

nature of terrorism as well as maintain the same level of protecting and serving the citizens of

The United States. It is important that law enforcement continue to work on strategies and

strengthen capabilities as well as maintain working relationships with the local communities they

are sworn to serve. In order to do this law enforcement need to understand the …show more content…

Prior to the

events of 9/11 the Federal Bureau of Investigations focused its vast resources at combating

crimes such as drug trafficking, bank robberies, financial crimes and organized crime. But with

the focus quickly changing to terrorism this left local law enforcement more involved in fighting

these crimes some of which they were unequipped to perform. Another important factor that was

was not thought of immediately after the attacks but became a problem for local law enforcement

for the next 10 plus years was that many officers were actively serving in the Reserves or State

National Guard and would be gone on deployments often times for a year at a time and

sometimes multiple times which placed huge strains on already undermanned states.

But how is this new threat and the creation of the DHS affecting state police functions in

today 's society? Many of the new requirements placed upon local agencies have had profound

effects on state agencies.

More than half of all states agree that officers as well as investigators have had new

requirements placed upon them such as terrorism-related intelligence gathering, investigations

involving potential terrorism and emergency response. Since 9/11 law enforcement agencies

have allocated millions of dollars and hundreds of hours to resources such as border security and

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