Local Law Enforcement and the Terrorist Threat: An Executive Session and a Research Agenda

The attacks of September 11, 2001, underscored the critical roles of local law enforcement in preparing for and responding to terrorism and highlighted the need for examination of new demands placed on police and the special problems to be confronted by departments in their efforts to effectively deal with the terrorist threat in their jurisdictions. To assist local law enforcement in this effort, the COPS office is funding PERF to conduct a series of five workshops to address critical issues faced by police in confronting the terrorist threat, tentatively including Improving Federal/Local Partnerships, Technology and Information Sharing, Intelligence Gathering and Analysis, Policing Muslim and Arab Communities, and Community Policing and Terrorism. This project would involve NIJ in this workshop series and expand it by addressing two major goals. First, the Institute will fund a sixth workshop session on local Law Enforcment Preparation for and Response to Terrorist Incidents. Second, the Institute will add a research component to all six workshop sessions by including leading policing and other relevant researchers as attendees. These experts will bring a research perspective to the proceedings and identify issues and information gaps which could be addressed in future Institute-sponsored studies. Following the entire workshop series, a 1 1/2 day meeting or forum will be held for all researchers who attended one or more of the workshop sessions. The purpose of this forum will be to identify and prioritize the research topics suggested by the workshops so that a report of the proceedings can be submitted to NIJ for use in developing a terrorism research agenda to support local law enforcement in their efforts to effetively counter this new threat to the security of their jurisdictions. ca/ncf