The United States Patriot Act under section 802 reviewed terrorism definition to include domestic as opposed to international terrorism. Domestic terrorism is perceived to happen when an individual act in a way that endangers the life of human beings. Domestic terrorism is a violation of a state or the United States criminal laws if the actor intends to intimidate the citizen, influence the policy of authority by intimidation, or it affects the government's conduct through a mass demolition, kidnapping, and assassination. Also, these acts should be executed primarily within the border and authority of the U.S. On the other hand, if the acts do not happen within the jurisdiction of the United States, they are considered international terrorism. Section 802 is not responsible for creating new forms of domestic terrorism; however, it usually expounds the type of conduct in which government has the power to investigate with regard to terrorism. The U.S Patriot Act has increased the powers of the government to investigate terrorism by allowing some authorities to be applied to domestic terrorism. The analysis of the impact of terrorism on the state police is important in understand how the law enforcement agencies have evolved. Thus, this paper intends to examine ways through which domestic terrorism activities are affecting priorities of the state police.
The United States is not immune from terrorism within its borders. There are various groups both domestic and foreign terrorist organizations who advocate for violence in pursuit of their political agendas. These organizations include the Puerto Rican separatists, international groups and among others have demonstrated the need of not discounting terrorism especially with the bombings that have occurred in the United States. Understandably, historical data have been absent especially reports concerning counter-terrorism activities by the state. However, the state police are thought to have prior knowledge and expertise relating to terrorism before the event of September 11. In reality, if states are asked about ways to prevent terrorism and enhance homeland security, most if not all the state officials will shift the accountability to the federal government. However, today, both the state and law enforcement bodies across the country are actively participating in curtailing domestic terrorism and improving homeland security.
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Before the event of September 11, some states such as Georgia, New York, and Oklahoma had prioritized terrorism compared to other states. These states had experienced terrorism in the 1990s. In 1993, an explosion of a bomb occurred in a parking bay in World Trade Center tower in New York, with a death toll of six people and over 1000 people injured. In 1995, Oklahoma a Murrah Federal building was bombed killing 168 people and leaving more than 500 wounded. Atlanta experienced a pipe bomb in 1996 at the Centennial Olympic Park that killed one person and 112 people injured. These events led to selected cities to start receiving funds for domestic preparedness relating to mass destruction weapons through the federal domestic preparedness program. States that received the funding were considered to be more prepared for response operations than others. However, before the event of Sept. 11 prevention of terrorism was never prioritize by both the state and law enforcement agencies. Today, the law enforcement agencies are actively pursuing terrorism-related activities and homeland security. For instance, state intelligence fusion centers have been developed since the Sept. 11 attack.
In understanding how the roles of the states have changed over the period, it is prudent to examine evolvement of terrorist activities and how they affect the state police priorities. Before the Sept. 11, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the state and law enforcement agencies were concerned with financial crimes, robberies of banks, drug trafficking, and organized crimes. Currently, the FBI roles have evolved to include protecting the U.S from terrorist attacks. Thus, an assumption can be made that in future the law enforcement agencies and the state will continue to focus on this issue of domestic terrorism. However, grants program by the federal government to fund these efforts locally and nationally have either been dissolved or diminished since Sept. 11 (Voegtlin & Boyter, n.d). The law enforcement agencies have found themselves in a tight situation given their expanding roles and responsibilities. Apart from having the homeland security role, several state police are tasked with combating new synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines, theft and computer crimes. The state police are also responsible for enforcing the new sex offender registries, immigration policies and conducting an investigation. Additionally, state police officers are placed to work as reservists, national guards while others continue to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan. This causes a massive personnel strain on the states.
The states employ about 10% of the police in the U.S (Bureau of Justice Statistics, n.d). The law enforcement of the country has conservatively played an essential but comparatively small role as far as the general picture of policing is concerned. Texas Rangers is an excellent example of well-known state police organization (Texas Department of Public Safety, n.d). It can be noted that most agencies of the states are new. Due to the growth of highway systems between states, the need for the states to expand their law enforcement agency arose. Also, general purpose agencies also assisted the states in criminal investigations and highway safety. For example, they provide weapons and specialized teams, crime labs, training local law enforcement, intelligence, and analysis among other support functions. The local police and sheriff’s department provides most of the law enforcement roles to the rural communities. However, rural areas face the challenges of having few law enforcement agencies. State police have the role in providing critical services to support the small law enforcement agencies in the rural areas.
Homeland security is a new concept to state and law enforcement agencies. The fight against terrorism should be heightened by both the state police and the local law enforcer. A report released by the National Criminal Association stated that law enforcement agencies should be on the front line of defense. They need to be allowed to gather intelligence, develop strategies to see that the communities and essential infrastructures are protected, vulnerable targets hardened, and are always prepared for responding aggressively to any act of terrorism (The National Criminal Justice Association, 2003). Furthermore, a report done by RAND Corporations in 2004 insisted that changing trends makes the law enforcement to be involved in investigating any form of terrorism incidents actively. The report further suggested that the state and law enforcement may be needed to act in a broader ways by filling the gap between what the FBI a federal agency, are prohibited in undertaking versus the contribution that can be given by the law enforcement such as collections of intelligence (Lois et al., 2004).
Today, the states are not faced only with the roles of homeland security, but they also affected by the shift of law enforcement priorities by the federal government. A commission of the 9/11 said that the FBI had favored its role of criminal justice as opposed to the mission of national security (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, 2004). The FBI in 2002, announced their reshaping priorities in guiding future activities, the new priority was the protection of the U.S from terrorist attacks (Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2003). The connection between state, local law enforcement agencies and the FBI, can only be realized if information gathering, analysis and sharing criminal information and activities that are suspicious is done among these bodies. The suggestion is to increase the utilization of state police due to increased changes happening in the country. For example, Arizona and New Mexico Governor, Janet Napolitano and Bill Richardson agreed in 2004 to share intelligence information to enhance homeland security (State of Arizona Executive Office, n.d). State police besides fulfilling their operational roles; they have been called upon to assist in the coordination of the country homeland security. A report done by National Emergency Management Association revealed that the population of law enforcement personnel who were appointed in the homeland security increased from 11 to 15 between 2002 and 2003. Also, the report stated that several states had created terrorism committee. The state police are affected by these plans whether placed to serve in the state's homeland security tasks forces or other committees.
In conclusion, it is evident that the law enforcement agencies have new responsibilities relating to terrorism threats besides them being required to fill gaps created as a result of changes in the federal law enforcement priorities. The state police are involved with drug enforcement, crime investigation, cybercrimes and other traditional functions of law enforcement. It has been revealed that the environment through which the police are operating in has become complex after the Sept. 11. There exist tremendous opportunities currently for the state to control their resources used in law enforcement in preventing future threats of terrorism for the overall improvement of the safety of the citizens of the United States.
References
Bureau of Justice Statistics. (n.d). Law enforcement statistics . Retrieved from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/lawenf.htm.
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2003). Facts and figures . Retrieved from http://www.fbi.gov/priorities/priorities.htm.
Lois M. Davis et al. (2004). When terrorism hits home: How prepared are state and local law enforcement? RAND Corporation . Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2004/RAND_MG104.pdf.
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks. (2004). The 9/11 commission report . New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc.
National Criminal Justice Association. (2003). Final report northeast policy forum: serving and protecting in the shadow of terrorism. Washington, D.C: Bureau of Justice Assistance.
State of Arizona Executive Office. (n.d). News Release: Governor Napolitano signs homeland security agreement with New Mexico . Retrieved from http://www.homelandsecurity.az.gov/documents.
Texas Department of Public Safety. (n.d). Historical developments . Retrieved from http://wwwtxdps.state.tx.us/director_Staff/texas_rangers.
Voegtlin, Gene & Boyter, Jennifer. (n.d). Legislative alert: state and local law enforcement assistance programs face cuts. International Association of Chiefs of Police . Retrieved from http://policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=233&issue_id=32004
