| Cops-Pols- Media- Terrorists |
September 11, 2001 should have outraged Americans like no other event in history, because the
attacks on the World Trade Center Towers, and the Pentagon, were only a prelude of things to come.
Unfortunately, only those people who were eyewitnesses to the absolute horror of that day will know
the full extent of the carnage.
…psychological well being
The American media almost immediately began to sanitize the events of that day by first removing the
video taped images of very normal people leaping to their deaths to avoid being incinerated. Our media
nannies decided that such graphic reality would not be good for our psychological well being. Besides,
there would be more important images to show us such as rows of blooded and battered Iraqi corpses;
terrorist made video tapes of tearful hostages pleading for their lives, and pictures of terror suspects
wearing panties on their heads.
…more bureaucracy
The politicians reacted in standard fashion by declaring that things were broken, and they proceeded to
fix the problems as they usually do. They created committees to get to the bottom of things. After
going through the committee exercise and racking up as much television exposure as possible, they
carried the tablets down from the mountain. The solutions were clear; more bureaucracy, and more
money to support the expanded bureaucracy.
…latest high tech gadgets
Police departments across the nation eventually received millions of dollars to upgrade and meet the
demands created by the war on terror. Most departments used the money to upgrade technologically
and purchase the latest high tech gadgets. The biggest problem is most departments' inability to fully
utilize new technology at even a fraction of its potential. After the dog and pony shows for the local
media, most of the new purchases would experience little use.
…need to know
The biggest fiction foisted on everybody is the notion that all the new money and bureaucracies will
make information sharing a reality among intelligence and law enforcement agencies. It's a nice idea,
and it certainly is not a new idea. The level and extent of information sharing is always in the details,
and the details always dictate a need to know. You, as a police officer, will always be the last person
with the need to know. When you're brought into the circle, you'll know that all other means of
resolving a situation have failed.
…exact and verified
There are times when an incident can best be resolved when relevant information is confined to a small
number of people within a single agency. When information is exact and verified, dissemination of the
information could jeopardize the prevention of an incident or the apprehension of a suspect(s). The
problem is, and always has been, for what reasons should information be withheld, and who should
make the decision to withhold information?
…minor to spectacular
While there are instances when information will be legitimately withheld from you, you'll experience
many instances when you'll be deprived of information you should have. In the latter instance, the
reason will be simple…who gets the credit? A lot of people will do just about anything to receive the
credit for something minor to spectacular, and police are more insatiable in this regard than most.
Once you experience the information sharing deficit of your own department, you'll wonder how much
benefit would be gained through improved interagency information sharing.
…constantly evolving commodity
There are usually two sides to a story, but in the case of information sharing, there are too many sides
to count. Developing information is a constantly evolving commodity which can change in the blink of
an eye. Developing information is also voluminous. Let's assume that some perfect system were in
place to disseminate all developing, and unabridged, terrorist related information through a pipeline
ending with you. Can you even begin to imagine how inundated you'd be with mostly useless
information. Intelligence analysts exist to determine the importance, accuracy, and relevancy of
information. It's not a perfect system, but there is no perfect system.
…near and dear
When you see politicians and police chiefs publicly posturing on the lack of information sharing between
federal agencies and local police departments, they're simply posturing. Most politicians and people in
top police leadership positions are pretty ignorant when it comes to information processing, and the
sharing of that information. It may be hard to believe, but many think it's as simple as pushing a
button on a computer. Everyone should worry about terrorists' attacks, but politicians and police chiefs
also have to worry about one particular result from a terrorist attack that is near and dear to their
hearts… blame. They're usually pretty good at assigning blame for most things as low down the chain as
possible, but terrorism is unique. If you're immediately present at a terror attack, you'll probably be a
victim, and you won't be around to blame.
…tolerance for violence
Can you imagine how frustrated terrorists must be with the United States of America? They've blown
up our embassies, taken Americans hostage, and murdered our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.
Even when they attacked the Towers with a truck bomb in the heart of New York City, they still
couldn't rise to the level of a speed bump to slow the rolling behemoth called America. In a country
where one city can have a higher murder rate than most countries, acts of terror can only be successful
if they can rise above our already high tolerance for violence and destruction.
…wildest expectations
On 9ll the terrorists finally got it right. The scale and breadth of the attacks definitely got our
attention. The success of the attacks was probably beyond the terrorists' wildest expectations. Besides
killing thousands, they sucked a trillion dollars out of America's economy in one day. As horrible as
that day was, it was probably necessary to get Americans to take the scourge of terrorism seriously.
…blame and shame
Acts of terror are nothing new. politicians, and those among us who know they're smarter than the rest
of us, bemoaned the horror of the attacks, before they returned to their normal politics of blame and
shame. America is no different than any other country when it comes to the politics of power. Power is
the ultimate goal, and terror is just another issue to be discussed and debated. Our self proclaimed
intellectual superiors would have us believe the evil of terror would not exist were it not for our
constitutional right of the pursuit of happiness at the expense of others.
…three hundred years
While acts of terror have occurred in every civilization since the beginning, the 21st Century poses
terror threats never experienced or conceived by past civilizations. Weapons of mass destruction are
currently a big item in the discuss and debate arena. Weapons of mass destruction are nothing new. In
the 15th Century the Matchlock rifle was the weapon of mass destruction. The Matchlock was a heavy,
cumbersome rifle requiring support to hold the weapon level. The shooter would light a wick attached
to a gunpowder charge which would ignite gunpowder in the barrel to send the projectile on its way. The
Matchlock remained the state of the art weapon of mass destruction for three hundred years before the
appearance of the Flintlock rifle.
…the rest of the story
The Flintlock rifle had a much shorter life span, but it killed plenty of people from its creation through
the American Civil War. Most of us know the rest of the story. Today, weapons of mass destruction
have advanced so rapidly that the most response the development of a new one receives is a yawn. The
so called smart weapons of this century have taken the edge off the mass part of mass destruction.
Fortunately, mass still has some significance when it comes to nuclear weapons.
…real meaning of mass
Terrorists have always had, and continue to have, access to weapons of mass destruction with the
exception of nuclear weapons. There is no reason to believe that terrorists will not, at some point,
obtain and detonate a nuclear device. God help us, politicians are all we have to prevent terrorists from
obtaining nuclear weapons, so it will be up to law enforcement agencies and police officers, like you, to
prevent the detonation of a weapon that puts the real meaning of mass back into mass destruction.
…observing people and circumstances
There's nothing better than an offense, or, in police jargon, pro-active enforcement. Police officers have
always been pro-active. The word patrol says it all. As a patrol officer, you'll be observing people and
circumstances on a continuous basis. No one can ever know how many crimes, or terrorist acts for that
matter, have been prevented solely through the action of a police officer based on that police officer's
observations.
…suspicious signals
Any country's best defense against terrorism is its police officers. A terrorist is nothing more than a
dangerous criminal. Just like any other criminal, the terrorist will exude suspicious signals readily
noticed by an observant police officer. While you'll quickly learn that anything can happen at anytime
and anywhere, the possibility of that anything being a terrorist attack is a greater possibility than ever
before.
…best defense
Think about this for a moment. Except for lands and structures owned by the Federal government, the
safety and security for every square mile of this nation is the responsibility of state and local police
officers. You might be a state patrol officer in the southwest with a patrol area of 250 square miles, or
you might be patrolling in a large city where your area of responsibility is only two by four blocks.
Either way, if you're familiar with your area of patrol, you'll be the best defense against terrorism.
…trust and respect
When an officer becomes a permanent day to day presence in the same area of patrol, residents within
that area will develop a higher comfort level with that officer. Even residents who generally view police
with suspicion will fairly evaluate an officer they observe on a frequent basis. Once an officer
establishes himself or herself as fair, knowledgeable, and competent, information becomes a natural
byproduct. There are many, many people who would never provide any kind of information to a stranger
with a badge. Those same people will, however, convey valuable information to a patrol officer who they
trust and respect.
…instantly recognize
If you're employed by a department led by experienced professionals who appreciate the importance of
the patrol function, you'll find yourself assigned to a geographical area of patrol on a continuous basis.
Your supervisors and commanders will continually impress upon you the importance of your total
familiarity with your patrol area. Those same supervisors and commanders can then rightly hold you
responsible for failing to recognize situations or circumstances alien to your area of responsibility. If
you're fortunate enough to experience this kind of stability, you'll instantly recognize persons or
activities not indigenous to your area as well as constantly observing and evaluating persons and
activities which are indigenous.
…fast movers
On the other hand, you could end up working in a department led by inexperienced fast movers who are
so busy thinking out of the box that they have little time, or inclination, to build a stable and well
informed patrol force. Their time will be spent networking with the fast movers from other police
departments and government agencies in pursuit of recognition for old ideas in new clothes. These
leaders will be loath to rely on telephones and email preferring face to face communication with their
counterparts over good food in pleasant surroundings. While these types of leaders would be better
suited to conduct inspirational seminars on self esteem, their presence in police departments is a reality.
…enormous control
Regardless of the experience or quality of a department's leadership, you, as a police officer, have
enormous control over your own development. As long as you recognize the real importance of your
microscopic position in the big picture, you'll realize that any terror attack, or preparation for an
attack, will occur on some officer's microscopic patch of turf. If you're thoroughly familiar with your
patrol area, the odds against you detecting and preventing an act of terror are not that great.
attacks on the World Trade Center Towers, and the Pentagon, were only a prelude of things to come.
Unfortunately, only those people who were eyewitnesses to the absolute horror of that day will know
the full extent of the carnage.
…psychological well being
The American media almost immediately began to sanitize the events of that day by first removing the
video taped images of very normal people leaping to their deaths to avoid being incinerated. Our media
nannies decided that such graphic reality would not be good for our psychological well being. Besides,
there would be more important images to show us such as rows of blooded and battered Iraqi corpses;
terrorist made video tapes of tearful hostages pleading for their lives, and pictures of terror suspects
wearing panties on their heads.
…more bureaucracy
The politicians reacted in standard fashion by declaring that things were broken, and they proceeded to
fix the problems as they usually do. They created committees to get to the bottom of things. After
going through the committee exercise and racking up as much television exposure as possible, they
carried the tablets down from the mountain. The solutions were clear; more bureaucracy, and more
money to support the expanded bureaucracy.
…latest high tech gadgets
Police departments across the nation eventually received millions of dollars to upgrade and meet the
demands created by the war on terror. Most departments used the money to upgrade technologically
and purchase the latest high tech gadgets. The biggest problem is most departments' inability to fully
utilize new technology at even a fraction of its potential. After the dog and pony shows for the local
media, most of the new purchases would experience little use.
…need to know
The biggest fiction foisted on everybody is the notion that all the new money and bureaucracies will
make information sharing a reality among intelligence and law enforcement agencies. It's a nice idea,
and it certainly is not a new idea. The level and extent of information sharing is always in the details,
and the details always dictate a need to know. You, as a police officer, will always be the last person
with the need to know. When you're brought into the circle, you'll know that all other means of
resolving a situation have failed.
…exact and verified
There are times when an incident can best be resolved when relevant information is confined to a small
number of people within a single agency. When information is exact and verified, dissemination of the
information could jeopardize the prevention of an incident or the apprehension of a suspect(s). The
problem is, and always has been, for what reasons should information be withheld, and who should
make the decision to withhold information?
…minor to spectacular
While there are instances when information will be legitimately withheld from you, you'll experience
many instances when you'll be deprived of information you should have. In the latter instance, the
reason will be simple…who gets the credit? A lot of people will do just about anything to receive the
credit for something minor to spectacular, and police are more insatiable in this regard than most.
Once you experience the information sharing deficit of your own department, you'll wonder how much
benefit would be gained through improved interagency information sharing.
…constantly evolving commodity
There are usually two sides to a story, but in the case of information sharing, there are too many sides
to count. Developing information is a constantly evolving commodity which can change in the blink of
an eye. Developing information is also voluminous. Let's assume that some perfect system were in
place to disseminate all developing, and unabridged, terrorist related information through a pipeline
ending with you. Can you even begin to imagine how inundated you'd be with mostly useless
information. Intelligence analysts exist to determine the importance, accuracy, and relevancy of
information. It's not a perfect system, but there is no perfect system.
…near and dear
When you see politicians and police chiefs publicly posturing on the lack of information sharing between
federal agencies and local police departments, they're simply posturing. Most politicians and people in
top police leadership positions are pretty ignorant when it comes to information processing, and the
sharing of that information. It may be hard to believe, but many think it's as simple as pushing a
button on a computer. Everyone should worry about terrorists' attacks, but politicians and police chiefs
also have to worry about one particular result from a terrorist attack that is near and dear to their
hearts… blame. They're usually pretty good at assigning blame for most things as low down the chain as
possible, but terrorism is unique. If you're immediately present at a terror attack, you'll probably be a
victim, and you won't be around to blame.
…tolerance for violence
Can you imagine how frustrated terrorists must be with the United States of America? They've blown
up our embassies, taken Americans hostage, and murdered our soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines.
Even when they attacked the Towers with a truck bomb in the heart of New York City, they still
couldn't rise to the level of a speed bump to slow the rolling behemoth called America. In a country
where one city can have a higher murder rate than most countries, acts of terror can only be successful
if they can rise above our already high tolerance for violence and destruction.
…wildest expectations
On 9ll the terrorists finally got it right. The scale and breadth of the attacks definitely got our
attention. The success of the attacks was probably beyond the terrorists' wildest expectations. Besides
killing thousands, they sucked a trillion dollars out of America's economy in one day. As horrible as
that day was, it was probably necessary to get Americans to take the scourge of terrorism seriously.
…blame and shame
Acts of terror are nothing new. politicians, and those among us who know they're smarter than the rest
of us, bemoaned the horror of the attacks, before they returned to their normal politics of blame and
shame. America is no different than any other country when it comes to the politics of power. Power is
the ultimate goal, and terror is just another issue to be discussed and debated. Our self proclaimed
intellectual superiors would have us believe the evil of terror would not exist were it not for our
constitutional right of the pursuit of happiness at the expense of others.
…three hundred years
While acts of terror have occurred in every civilization since the beginning, the 21st Century poses
terror threats never experienced or conceived by past civilizations. Weapons of mass destruction are
currently a big item in the discuss and debate arena. Weapons of mass destruction are nothing new. In
the 15th Century the Matchlock rifle was the weapon of mass destruction. The Matchlock was a heavy,
cumbersome rifle requiring support to hold the weapon level. The shooter would light a wick attached
to a gunpowder charge which would ignite gunpowder in the barrel to send the projectile on its way. The
Matchlock remained the state of the art weapon of mass destruction for three hundred years before the
appearance of the Flintlock rifle.
…the rest of the story
The Flintlock rifle had a much shorter life span, but it killed plenty of people from its creation through
the American Civil War. Most of us know the rest of the story. Today, weapons of mass destruction
have advanced so rapidly that the most response the development of a new one receives is a yawn. The
so called smart weapons of this century have taken the edge off the mass part of mass destruction.
Fortunately, mass still has some significance when it comes to nuclear weapons.
…real meaning of mass
Terrorists have always had, and continue to have, access to weapons of mass destruction with the
exception of nuclear weapons. There is no reason to believe that terrorists will not, at some point,
obtain and detonate a nuclear device. God help us, politicians are all we have to prevent terrorists from
obtaining nuclear weapons, so it will be up to law enforcement agencies and police officers, like you, to
prevent the detonation of a weapon that puts the real meaning of mass back into mass destruction.
…observing people and circumstances
There's nothing better than an offense, or, in police jargon, pro-active enforcement. Police officers have
always been pro-active. The word patrol says it all. As a patrol officer, you'll be observing people and
circumstances on a continuous basis. No one can ever know how many crimes, or terrorist acts for that
matter, have been prevented solely through the action of a police officer based on that police officer's
observations.
…suspicious signals
Any country's best defense against terrorism is its police officers. A terrorist is nothing more than a
dangerous criminal. Just like any other criminal, the terrorist will exude suspicious signals readily
noticed by an observant police officer. While you'll quickly learn that anything can happen at anytime
and anywhere, the possibility of that anything being a terrorist attack is a greater possibility than ever
before.
…best defense
Think about this for a moment. Except for lands and structures owned by the Federal government, the
safety and security for every square mile of this nation is the responsibility of state and local police
officers. You might be a state patrol officer in the southwest with a patrol area of 250 square miles, or
you might be patrolling in a large city where your area of responsibility is only two by four blocks.
Either way, if you're familiar with your area of patrol, you'll be the best defense against terrorism.
…trust and respect
When an officer becomes a permanent day to day presence in the same area of patrol, residents within
that area will develop a higher comfort level with that officer. Even residents who generally view police
with suspicion will fairly evaluate an officer they observe on a frequent basis. Once an officer
establishes himself or herself as fair, knowledgeable, and competent, information becomes a natural
byproduct. There are many, many people who would never provide any kind of information to a stranger
with a badge. Those same people will, however, convey valuable information to a patrol officer who they
trust and respect.
…instantly recognize
If you're employed by a department led by experienced professionals who appreciate the importance of
the patrol function, you'll find yourself assigned to a geographical area of patrol on a continuous basis.
Your supervisors and commanders will continually impress upon you the importance of your total
familiarity with your patrol area. Those same supervisors and commanders can then rightly hold you
responsible for failing to recognize situations or circumstances alien to your area of responsibility. If
you're fortunate enough to experience this kind of stability, you'll instantly recognize persons or
activities not indigenous to your area as well as constantly observing and evaluating persons and
activities which are indigenous.
…fast movers
On the other hand, you could end up working in a department led by inexperienced fast movers who are
so busy thinking out of the box that they have little time, or inclination, to build a stable and well
informed patrol force. Their time will be spent networking with the fast movers from other police
departments and government agencies in pursuit of recognition for old ideas in new clothes. These
leaders will be loath to rely on telephones and email preferring face to face communication with their
counterparts over good food in pleasant surroundings. While these types of leaders would be better
suited to conduct inspirational seminars on self esteem, their presence in police departments is a reality.
…enormous control
Regardless of the experience or quality of a department's leadership, you, as a police officer, have
enormous control over your own development. As long as you recognize the real importance of your
microscopic position in the big picture, you'll realize that any terror attack, or preparation for an
attack, will occur on some officer's microscopic patch of turf. If you're thoroughly familiar with your
patrol area, the odds against you detecting and preventing an act of terror are not that great.
…just being polite
When politicians include local police
departments in their discourse regarding
information sharing, for the most part,
they're just being polite. When it comes to
international terrorism, federal agencies
will always jealously guard their turf.
When a federal agency shares critical
information with your department, it will
do so only when it's in need of your
resources, and only when a threat is
imminent. Even at this juncture, the
information will still be limited based on
that agency's assessment of just how much
you need to know.
When politicians include local police
departments in their discourse regarding
information sharing, for the most part,
they're just being polite. When it comes to
international terrorism, federal agencies
will always jealously guard their turf.
When a federal agency shares critical
information with your department, it will
do so only when it's in need of your
resources, and only when a threat is
imminent. Even at this juncture, the
information will still be limited based on
that agency's assessment of just how much
you need to know.
…high quality of intelligence
You'll hear a lot of commentary on the
importance of infiltrating terrorist
organizations with informants to gain high
value human intelligence. While this is a
valid observation, I doubt that many of
the same commentators realize the high
quality of intelligence that can be gained
from a patrol officer who continuously
patrols a designated area. If every police
department in the nation required their
patrol officers to remain in an unchanged
patrol area for a minimum of five years,
the availability of high quality intelligence
for terror related investigations would be
immeasurable.
You'll hear a lot of commentary on the
importance of infiltrating terrorist
organizations with informants to gain high
value human intelligence. While this is a
valid observation, I doubt that many of
the same commentators realize the high
quality of intelligence that can be gained
from a patrol officer who continuously
patrols a designated area. If every police
department in the nation required their
patrol officers to remain in an unchanged
patrol area for a minimum of five years,
the availability of high quality intelligence
for terror related investigations would be
immeasurable.
"You, as a police officer,
will always be the last
person with the need to
know."
will always be the last
person with the need to
know."
"The biggest fiction
foisted on everybody is
the notion that all the
new money and
bureaucracies will make
information sharing a
reality among intelligence
and law enforcement
agencies."
foisted on everybody is
the notion that all the
new money and
bureaucracies will make
information sharing a
reality among intelligence
and law enforcement
agencies."
"The biggest problem is
most departments'
inability to fully utilize
new technology at even a
fraction of its potential."
most departments'
inability to fully utilize
new technology at even a
fraction of its potential."
Police and Terrorism
| The Terror Watch List's Tangle "The goal was to be a master database pooling information on terror suspects. The result: A litany of technical glitches and red-tape follies" |
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