How 911 Changed Policing in the United States (Essay Sample)

Research on how 911 changed policing in the United States.
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Introduction
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants connected with the Islamic extremist group known as the al-Qaeda hijacked four airliners using them to carry out a suicide attacks against their targets in the United States .Two of the planes were directly flown into the World Trade Center tower in the city of New York, a third plane was used to hit the pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., while the fourth plane crashed on ground in Pennsylvania
More than 3,000 people were killed during the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., counting more than 400 police officers and firefighters.
Popularly referred to as 9/11, the attacks resulted in extensive death and pronounced destructions triggering major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism. As a result of the attack major changes in policing in the United States have occurred, which are addressed in this paper.
America’s Response to September 11 Attack
In the immediate outcome of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that consequently destroyed the reputation of the United States America's sense of security and strength, the government under President George W. Bush immediately propelled the Global Combat on Terrorism—and passed a series of laws and exclusive orders that have affected and changed policing in United States of America. These measures were carefully formulated to prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil and reinstate a sense of protection to a nation devastated by the tragedy.
Creation of Department of Homeland Security
The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, triggered federal officials to scrutinize how such a devastating attack had occurred. The post-9/11 examination ultimately turned to how the federal government could effectively prevent future attacks by terrorists. Precisely a month after the 9/11 attacks, Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) lead a legislation to create a Department of Homeland Security. The president George Bush administration initially rejected the idea, but Democratic members of the Senate persistently press it. Eventually, in mid-year of 2002, more than seven months after the previous proposal, President George Bush reversed his standpoint. The Homeland Security Act called for an organized connection various federal agencies and offices into the anew conventional Department of Homeland Security (DHS), directed by the first Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania (911research.wtc7.net) .Having been fashioned in the shadow of 9/11 attack, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created with an anti-terrorism attention, with much devotion given to the formulation of a new National Threat Advisory system. This system made use color-coded levels to represent the state of threats to in America, from the color "green" (representing low threat) to "red" (severe threat) (Bloss, n.d.). The responsibilities of many DHS agencies were to make essential preparations for future terrorist attacks in order to possibly minimalize the impact of such attacks.
The Department of Homeland Security is accountable for ensuring the protection and security of the United States of America from both man-made and natural disasters (Louden & Louden, 2004). DHS has mainly focused on federal preparations to counter terrorist attacks while managing other responsibilities associated to border security, customs and emergency management, among many others.
Intelligence Gathering
Since the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, local police agencies have engaged on greater national security roles and responsibilities. "The September 11 attacks," wrote Attorney General John Ashcroft to all of United States. Attorneys in November 2001, "demonstrate that the war on terrorism must be fought and won at United States of America as well as abroad”
Recently, President Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, stated that the budget request from the Department of Homeland Security encompassed supplementary counterterrorism funding for "systems to improve information-sharing amongst federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement." (911research.wtc7.net).
All the departments stood up new Homeland Security bureaus or units and/or Counter Terrorism units. In the aftermath of 9/11, case study departments redeployed their strategic intelligence units on Counter Terrorism. Eventually, these developed into recognized Homeland Security bureaus or divisions and Counter Terrorism units (Waxman, 2010). For instance, one department originally started a Homeland Security unit and, then advanced and expanded this unit into a Homeland Security Bureau made almost 60–70 employees with an infrastructure protection, operations intelligence, and Counter Terrorism intelligence section. All of the departments also developed or enhanced existing specialized response teams to focus on Chemical, Biological, Radiological Nuclear, or Explosives incidents.
Fusion centers.
Resulting from 9/11, some state and local entities developed "fusion centers" to advance information sharing and investigation within their perspective local jurisdiction on an array of threats.  The Fusion centers are state and locally owned and functioned, they were developed upon existing criminal intelligence efforts inhabitant in state and main city police divisions (Thomas, 2011).  By structured upon their knowledge and proficiency in addressing criminal threats, fusion centers were distinctively positioned to recognize and detect crimes or terrorism threats that could result to national secu...