Impact of 9/11 on Police Forces

After 9/11, many local law enforcement agencies (LEAs), especially in large counties, internally shifted resources or increased departmental spending to accommodate new operational requirements for counter-terrorism (CT) and homeland security (HS). While research has documented the increased operational demands an expanded CT focus has placed on LEAs, we know little about what benefits have resulted from the overlap between CT and HS requirements and routine LEA functions. This RAND Corporation study will examine the costs and benefits of LEAs' renewed focus on CT and HS using two major methodologies: (1) analysis of secondary data sources to inform cost estimates; and (2) in-depth case studies of five selected LEAs that represent a range of department sizes, geographic locations, length of time involved in CT, and variation in types of threats their jurisdictions face. The in-depth case studies will focus on understanding what the LEAs' overall approach was to meeting CT and HS requirements and how it has evolved over time; what organizational adjustments were made; how the LEAs are resourcing these activities; possible impacts on training, equipping, coordination, recruitment, and retention; and the perceived spillover effects (positive and negative) on other areas. RAND also will quantify the direct monetary costs associated with CT and HS requirements and quantify the opportunity costs associated with shifting resources and personnel and trade-offs in terms of possible impact on crime rates and costs of crime on areas that resources were shifted away from. Finally, RAND will rank-order identified costs and benefits in terms of relative magnitude to understand better where the biggest impacts have been. The five sites included in this application for indepth study are Miami, FL, Boston, MA, Las Vegas, NV, Los Angeles, CA, and Houston, TX.

ca/ncf