We have all witnessed the adverse impacts of terrorism on our social and economic stability in our country. This only attests that it is not and will never be a hoax. Let us face it. The loss of our beloved ones, the loss of the right personnel, the economic instability of our country and many others are some of the bad impacts of terrorism.
As a result of this, a lot of pressure from citizens has been imparted on the local law enforcement agencies. This has forced law enforcement agencies to reposition their line of work to fight terrorism before more severe terrorist acts are carried out. This paper therefore tries to explicate the strategies towards local law enforcement in the process of protecting my community against terrorism.
Whenever terrorist attacks occur, the first bodies to blame are usually the law enforcement agencies. It is thus the obligation of the law enforcement agencies to work diligently to ensure that the next terrorism attacks do not occur. The first tactic to take is to enforce and improve the local federal partnerships.
This is whereby the leaders of the federal as well as the local enforcement agencies cooperate to reinforce the existing partnerships. This is to be done since evidently, domestic security largely depends on the law enforcement agencies working together. This is also after the realization that agencies at each level have an imperative role to fill.
In order for local federal partnerships to succeed, there should be mutual understanding of each and everyone’s role in preventing terrorism as well as understanding each other’s weaknesses (Fraser, Scott, Heisey, and Wasserman, 1998). A managerial session should be organized with the main agenda of improving the local and federal partnerships.
The session should allow the members participating to exchange freely information and dismiss misperceptions in an open and productive forum. Through this, several obstacles will be removed leading to successful local federal partnerships.
During this executive session, several issues will be raised and at the same time solutions will be provided to the problems. Recommendations will also be given to counteract future problems that may arise in the local and federal agencies. However, in cases where time would be a limiting factor, some problems will be postponed to be solved in future executive forums. During the provision of recommendations, there is no need of assigning ownership to any agency.
It is however good to enforce recommendations for improving training immediately. The issues and recommendations raised in the first session will be of great importance as they will serve as starting points for the successive forums. The sessions may focus on different topics such as policing immigrant communities, homeland security systems, intelligence as well as bio-terrorism.
Through community policing, complex problems related to crimes will be addressed and resolved and the quality of life will be improved. An array of techniques to perk up the efficacy of the police as well as the sheriff agencies will be made available. Community policing will also help in the prevention and responsiveness to the incidences of terrorism.
This will be enforced through the active involvement of citizens. Therefore, in order for the law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism, assets and resources as well as partnerships traced in the community policing approaches need to be made.
The managerial staff of the law enforcement agency should learn and understand the cultural and religious beliefs of the community. A mutual communication should be developed among the leaders with an aim of protecting the community against terrorist attacks. There is need to develop multicultural forums and councils with the essential expertise to inspect hate crimes. Students as well as other educational institutions need to be protected to prevent hate crimes through cooperation between campus officers and law enforcement agencies.
According to Kahaner (1997), while protecting students, there is need for the local law enforcement to use all the resources available to understand both the cultural and the religious beliefs of the community. As stated previously, the local and federal enforcement agencies should mutually cooperate with one another and in the process, educate the constituents regarding their role in offering protection to the community against terrorism.
This is through helping the local law enforcement agencies during their investigations. The media also has a greater role in creating awareness among the community members regarding its function in reducing the rates of crimes. The media will enhance public education campaigns of the community against crimes.
The tools and resources for improving communication need to be developed. Amongst them are retaining of officers with the ability to speak diversified languages, inventing video tapes for training and the distribution of multi-language brochures. The enforcement of these tools will improve the delivery of police service in the community as well as other communities (Reaves & Hickman, 2002).
The local law enforcement should be in partnership with the police in detection of any criminal activities. The group of individuals that detect the crime should then notify other teams (local law enforcement) through the lines of communication that they have developed. This should be followed by intervention whereby the concerned teams concentrate on criminal investigation.
There will be the responsibility of the health care system to manage the terrorist attacks basing on their health care surge. The teams as well as other law enforcement agencies should communicate effectively so that the indispensable precautions are provided to other citizens. In the process, other remedial arrangements will be provided.
In conclusion, here are the most vital issues during preparation and response to terrorism attacks. First is funding. This should be done so that strong cooperation among the various law enforcement agencies, fire fighting units, the public and the health care quarter is built.
Training should be enforced to improve the intelligence in detection of any criminal activities. The last thing to put into practice is to share ones knowledge with others on matters relating to terrorism. Sharing should also be done among the agencies. If this is put into practice, I am sure that my community will be decidedly protected from terrorist attacks.
References
Fraser, B. C., Scott, M., Heisey, J., Wasserman, R. (1998). Challenge to change: The 21st century policing project. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum.
Kahaner, L. (1997). Competitive intelligence:How to gather, analyze and use information to move your business to the top. New York,NY: Simon Shuster.
Reaves, A. B., Hickman, J. M. (2002). Census of state and local law enforcement agencies. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics