Community policing & counter terrorism: Community policing philosophy as a tool for local law enforcement to counter terrorist activities

The phenomenon of terrorism has become an issue of great concern to society and the response of governments has varied throughout the world. For the purpose of this study, an act of terrorism will be operationalized as the use of force by non-state actors against a civilian population in an attempt to coerce a target audience to implement a political, economic, religious or ideological change. The United States (US) government has utilized a number of federal organizations, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency, to investigate and prevent acts of terrorism both domestically and internationally. Although many local law enforcement agencies have received increased funding to address the phenomenon of terrorism, there has been limited research conducted to ascertain the changes implemented and the effectiveness of new programs and training. The state of preparedness of local law enforcement agencies in their proactive efforts to counter terrorism is shrouded in the dark. There has been practically no research in the area of mobilization of local communities in intelligence gathering and other proactive tools to counter terrorist activities. The local law enforcement response to the phenomenon of terrorism remains unknown for an overwhelming majority of departments in the US.;The goal of this research study is to assess the feasibility of implementation of some of the most basic tenets of the community oriented policing philosophy in mobilization of the communities by local law enforcement agencies in their effort to become proactive in the fight against local and global terrorist threat. Through utilization of a number of focus groups in the Northeast region of the US the researcher measures and assesses the attitudes and perspectives of both law enforcement and non-law enforcement towards the possibility of engagement of community members in a proactive effort to counter terrorism on a local level. The focus on the local level is supported in part by recent academic studies that have found, in the case of actors involved with the commission of terrorist attacks in the US, the existence of spatial relationships among residence of actor, preparatory activities, and target selection. The research found support for community policing in proactive counter-terrorism.;Fighting terrorism is like being a goalkeeper. You can make a hundred brilliant saves but the only shot that people remember is the one that gets past you (Paul Wilkinson).