by Dean Alexander, Director, Western Illinois University Homeland Security Research Program
Today's (Friday, April 19) deadly confrontation between the Boston Marathon suspects and law enforcement, including the killing a MIT officer and injuring several others, brings to focus the vulnerability of police during their interactions with terrorists. Police officers throughout the world are the first line of defense against terrorism. Police officers confront terrorists during such traditional activities as routine traffic stops, warrant service and responses to calls for service. Law enforcement also investigates seemingly mundane crimes that turn out to be related to terror. Police inquiries into a series of gas station robberies in Southern California in 2005, for instance, revealed that a radical Islamic group—composed of some former convicts—was using the proceeds of the robberies to fund prospective terror operations against the U.S. military and other targets in the Los Angeles area.
Terrorists target police—both directly and indirectly—because terror groups view the police officers as instrumentalities of the government and distinct tools of the group's oppressors. In that sense, law enforcement is a strategic, operational and tactical target of terrorists. Police officers' roles in combating terrorism is critical, as they, too, are victims of such violence as well as the protectors of others.Attacks on police stations, training facilities and recruitment centers are designed to demonstrate to the public that police officers cannot protect themselves. Terrorists also attack them because they frequently have a high concentration of law enforcement officials, meaning that chances are good for achieving a high human toll.
Incidents arising against police cars occur due to the ubiquity of the targets and the vulnerability of the assets. Examples of attacks during other traditional law enforcement functions—including while providing security at a foreign consulate—demonstrate that police could be harmed at any point. Terrorist attacks on police officers at bars, at restaurants, at one's home, and in one's private vehicle suggest that no place is safe for law enforcement.
Terrorists choose their targets by weighing the prospective severity of the attack in terms of human and property damage and the symbolic and strategic importance of the target (a police station, for instance) against the costs in money, manpower, equipment and sophistication needed to undertake particular terror attacks. Also, the level of security at a particular asset—its softness or hardness relative to other targets—affects the likelihood (and frequency) of attack. Assets protected with greater vigor are avoided, while poorly fortified assets essentially invite attack.Just as terrorist groups recruit across national boundaries and terrorist operations cross borders, terrorists adopt modus operandi from other terrorists around the world. This globalization of terror, combined with the growing ferocity and boldness of attacks, mean that law enforcement officers should be made aware of terrorist attacks worldwide. Tactics and targets used against police in one place will probably be replicated elsewhere. Better recognition of the risks will allow for improved awareness training and earlier adoption of better security measures and tactics designed to harden law enforcement targets.
This incident illustrates terrorists' unending imagination and thirst for violence against the principal instrument of society's protection force—law enforcement. After all, if the principal defenders against terror are unsafe, then the rest of society could ultimately crack under terror's menace. It is imperative, then, that we learn from the past so that we may have a future with less victimization of law enforcement by terrorists.
Dean C. Alexander is an associate professor in the Western Illinois University School of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration and is the director of the Homeland Security Research Program at WIU. Information about Alexander's background is available on his WIU faculty webpage at http://www.wiu.edu/coehs/leja/faculty_staff/alexander.php
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