The number of terrorism related attacks and deaths of innocent
people as a result of those terrorist assaults have been increasing. This was
despite the huge amount of budget devoted towards fighting against
terrorism by the governments. One of the reasons for being insufficient to
reduce the number of terrorist attacks is the limited involvement of the local
police agencies in the fight against terrorism. Most of them do not have
separate terrorism units and are not full-time police officers. Those agencies
which have separate units assign only four or less officers. As a result, their
ability to get information on terrorism related activities and the level of
information sharing with the federal and national agencies is very limited. It
is suggested in this paper that each local police agency should establish a
separate terrorism unit and assign sufficient number of full-time police
officers. These officers and managers should be trained by national experts.
Officers in these units should develop mutual trust with different groups that
have diverse political and religious backgrounds. A strong relationship and
cooperation should also be developed with other local and national agencies.
In addition, each local police agency should prepare contingency plans prior
to any attack.