ON THE CUTTING EDGE: Terrorists Get Parking Tickets, Too

 

Since 9/11, state and local police nationwide have created or beefed up counterterrorism divisions to investigate emerging homegrown terror plots and to share the results of their intelligence gathering with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security. The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that at 800,000 strong, police “far outnumber federal agents, and their eyes and ears are attuned to know more about what's suspicious in their own communities.”

 

In Los Angeles, the counterterrorism effort - dubbed “intelligence-led policing” by LAPD’s chief of police, William Bratton – starts with strictly enforcing local laws and regulations, a variation of the “No Broken Windows” anti-crime strategy. Police then painstakingly investigate connections between the small-time perps and suspected terrorists in the US and overseas:

Los Angeles police say that since 9/11 they have arrested nearly 200 people, both American citizens and foreign nationals, with suspected ties to terrorist organizations. These included a group of North Africans that LAPD and federal officials are convinced were part of an al Qaeda support cell living in Los Angeles. The charges against them have ranged from marriage fraud to identity theft to illegal weapons possession.

 

Each arrest was the result of a conventional criminal investigation using California state law with no need for warrantless phone taps or secret court orders. None of the cases ever mentioned terrorism at all. Trials are still pending in many cases but there have been dozens of guilty pleas. …

 

At a time when the FBI and other Washington agencies are coming under growing criticism for terrorism cases that often fall apart in the courts, the Los Angeles police approach using conventional crime cases is gaining attention as an alternative.

Posted by The Stiletto at January 3, 2007
Categories: On The Cutting Edge
 

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