Editor’s Note: This week’s PoliceOne First Person essay is from PoliceOne Member Charles Allen is the Director of Training for The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) in Oklahoma City. We’re running Charles’ contribution today because this weekend marks the 7th Anniversary of the 7/7 attacks in London, England. Our thoughts and prayers are with the surviors of that atrocity. In PoliceOne “First Person” essays, our Members and Columnists candidly share their own unique view of the world. This is a platform from which individual officers can share their own personal insights on issues confronting cops today, as well as opinions, observations, and advice on living life behind the thin blue line. If you want to share your own perspective with other P1 Members, simply send us an e-mail with your story.
By Charles Allen
Police1 Member
There are regular news reports about the Federal Bureau of Investigation thwarting another terrorist plot inside the United States. It might seem the FBI is the only agency having any success with recognizing, investigating and arresting potential terrorists. However, and those of us from state and local law enforcement agencies have known this for a long time, a surprising number of those investigations started with information provided by a local law enforcement agency.
In 2011, the Institute for Homeland Security Solutions released a study of terrorist events within the United States, both those which were successful and those which were foiled, occurring between 1999 and 2009. In their analysis of the foiled plots, it was found that in 80 percent of the cases, the initial clues that led to an investigation came from law enforcement (almost equally divided between federal and local/state) or from citizens. In fact, almost 40 percent of the investigations started with call from a citizen concerned about something they saw or overheard.
Everyone knows that when it comes to crime, patrol officers are the last line of defense, standing between the good and the bad. But, we should also recognize their value as the front line of stopping terrorist plots through their ability, and opportunities, to collect information for analysts to study.
Terrorists — foreign or domestic — must interact with the civilian community whether they want to or not. They have to abide by the laws of physics…they cannot walk through walls or pull a pile of explosives out of a magic hat. If they are going to commit a terrorist act, they, or someone they use, will almost always have to be physically present in the community at some time before the event.
They have to live somewhere, have some mode of transportation…they will have to pick a target, conduct surveillance of the target…they will have to acquire weapons or materials, store them, move them, assemble them…they may have to assemble a team and make practice runs…all of these actions put them in direct contact with members of the local community, the same community the patrol officer interacts with every day. Sometimes, patrol officers even interact with the terrorists.
On April 19th, 1995, ninety minutes after he bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, domestic terrorist Timothy McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Charlie Hanger for not having a tag on his vehicle — proving that one stop can make a difference.
Through their constant interaction with the community, patrol officers have the greatest opportunities to witness or learn about the suspicious behaviors that often signal some stage of a terrorist plot. Officers who use those interaction opportunities to educate their citizens about the types of behaviors which should be reported, and do their part to make the agency approachable and interested in the information will do more to make our homeland safe than all the ‘watch lists’ in the world. Through their own vigilance, and their support of a vigilant community, patrol officers will be the ones who give the investigators the chance to get between the match and the fuse.
Analysts must have good information to create effective intelligence, and no one is in a better position to provide that information than the patrol officer, the deputy or the trooper who is out there, engaged with the community, vigilant for information about suspicious behaviors… information that may be the last dots the analyst needs to connect. The safety of our nation depends on the whole team; the analysts, the investigators and the line officers. But it is possible the most important role is that of the ones on patrol…the ones closest to the where the terrorists are…because if the terrorists succeed, they will be the ones closest to the act. Stopping terrorists before they act will take the full effort of all branches of law enforcement, but especially those who are the last line of defense, and the first line of detection.
About the Author
Charles Allen is the Director of Training for The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) in Oklahoma City. Mr. Allen joined the Institute in 2010, after retiring from the Oklahoma City Police Department with 34 years of service. Retiring at the rank of Major, Mr. Allen began his law enforcement career as a line officer, and ultimately served as a supervisor and commander in both the Uniform and Investigative Bureaus of the department, completing his career as commander of the Investigations Division. Mr. Allen was a first responder to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, and served as liaison to the FBI’s Command Center during the initial stages of the bombing investigation. Mr. Allen is a graduate of the 198th Session of the FBI National Academy and the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police. The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism is a grant-funded, non-profit training group which provides free training for line officers in information collection and suspicious activity reporting through the InCOP (Information Collection On Patrol) training courses. For more information on MIPT and InCOP, visit www.incop.us.
