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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
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