A Progressive Plan for State & Local Counterterrorism

ILLUSTRATED: State and local officials need to be organized and trained to prevent and respond to acts of terrorism. This system can and must be fully in line with the Constitution.

LAW: Securing the country is securing the Constitution. Ignoring our Constitution is the name of security is the biggest capitulation to terrorists.
Certainly at the federal level, special legal procedures and sanctions need to apply to terrorism. However it can be done in the American Spirit of judicial review, legislative oversight, and personal liberties.
A core question in domestic homeland security is whether a state or local authority can make the decision to elevate a criminal matter into a national security matter with the different rules and resources applied. Generally, the solution is for state and local law enforcement be trained to detect terrorist activity, to communicate it to federal authorities, and to support federal terrorist investigations. Barring exigent circumstances (hot pursuit of a ticking suicide bomber) local authorities should have to make a legal application to the Justice Department for any special investigative authority. A situation of municipalities passing anti-terrorist ordinances and the inequitable enforcement that would follow would be inefficient and a threat to our civil liberties.

INFORMATION SECURITY: Protocols need to be established across state lines for passing information. States and municipalities differ in their "sunshine" laws, and law enforcement and other government agencies must have confidence in the protection of information they share.

TRAINING: Terrorism is a fundamentally different type of activity from street crime and white collar fraud that American law enforcement is used to. Greed and negative impulses motivate most crime. Terrorism is political and social activism with violence. It is motivated by a perverted sense of romanticism and revenge.
Local police and state troopers must be trained on terrorism in the academy and throughout their careers. Topics should focus on the nature or terrorist organizations, the current worldwide threats, and modern tactics and tools.

DEDICATED UNITS: It is one thing to train every peace officer to recognize terrorism, and it is another to train dedicated units to go on offense against terror groups. Only the largest departments have the scale to organize dedicated units, so states will have to work with groups of counties regionally to develop expertise and centers of excellence to stop the terrorist threat.

POLITICAL RESPONSE PROTOCOLS: Much is ongoing about emergency response to terrorist and natural disaster. With terrorism, local politicians, community leaders, and police community liaisons must engage communities and neighborhoods. Spreading fear and panic not the best method since it dissuades informants. The population would need the situation explained and to know that the government is working to protect them and their constitution. Remember that terrorist acts have been perpetrated by natural born Americans and immigrants of all races.

PRIVATE PROPERTY: By any measure, the vast majority of critical infrastructure is privately held. State and local authorities are in the best position to do threat assessments as to which targets would be the most economically damaging as well as which would be the biggest spectacle.