Introduction to the Special Issue on Policing and Homeland Security

• NCJ Number: 229010
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 36 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2009 Pages: 1249-1258
• Author(s): Stan K. Shernock
• Date Published: December 2009
• Length: 10 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For individual articles, see NCJ-229011-14.

Annotation

This special issue contains articles on the new role of the police in homeland security.

Abstract

Although each article offers a distinctive contribution to the analysis of the police role in counterterrorism, there are important issues and themes in the field of homeland security that are common to all four articles. One of these themes is terrorism as crime and the police as the primary agency in homeland security. The articles in this issue define "terrorism" as a type of crime, which justifies the police having a major role in the fight against it. This has implications for police training and responsibilities. A second common theme of the articles is the identification of the multiple dimensions of homeland security. These include prevention through intelligence collection and dissemination before an attack occurs, response during a terrorist incident, and crisis management and restoration after the incident. A third common theme of the articles is the need for specialization and customization in police counterterrorism training and operations. Police must be trained in the variety of terrorist groups that may be motivated to engage in crime, and they should receive specialized training tailored to the distinctive characteristics of terrorist groups, with attention to priority threats in a given jurisdiction. The remaining common themes of the article are the need for cooperation and coordination among law enforcement officials, intelligence agencies, private security agents, and other stakeholders, as well as the comparative costs and benefits of the new role of police in counterterrorism. The articles in this issue focus not only on the new roles for police as they assume the responsibility for homeland security, but also on whether there is a model of policing terrorism and, if so, how it might redefine and influence policing as it assumes this new role.