Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Local Police and Counter-terrorism in the future


Two weeks ago I, along with most commenters remarked on the excellent coordination of the federated law enforcement in Massachusetts.  I noticed raid jackets titled "Boston University Police" as well as "Diplomatic Security Service."  The National Guard was on the at the scene of the bombing within seconds, and provided proper logistic support during the manhunt.  
But that was the response AFTER the bombing.  5 years ago I wrote an article about local law enforcement BEFORE a bomb goes off.  Local Intelligence collection passed up the chain is as crucial as the feds passing information down.
What has changed in the last five years is that it is more possible than ever to do intelligence analysis from open sources, mainly online.  Anyone,... a local police department or a private security firm could collect all types of data and crunch numbers to help predict terrorism.  Tracing individuals, running regressions on arcane pieces of data, as well as the ability to do wiretapping in a hyper-connected world means that local police are able to do a better job in counter terrorism.  
This of course requires a national legal and administrative framework to handle in information from municipal police.

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