Role that local law enforcement has in homeland security

Role that local law enforcement has in homeland security
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Role that local law enforcement has in homeland security
The local law enforcement plays a vital role in homeland security. Local law enforcement agencies have a direct interaction with the community and their role in ensuring security cannot be ignored. The profound role of law enforcement agencies as far as homeland security is concerned is preventing against acts of terrorism. The local law enforcement analyzes any information that regards terrorism passed to them from any source. They are also in a position to detect any act of terrorism and organize security forces to act accordingly. In addition to the above-mentioned responsibilities, the local law enforcement is also in charge of the immigration and ensuring that the public is safe at all times. Disaster and emergency preparedness also falls in the scope of the local law enforcement roles. However, all this work is done in collaboration with other security agents and departments. Since the act of terrorisms is local in its execution, the local law enforcement thus plays a vital role in preventing acts of terrorism, as well as other security threats.
Local law enforcers have knowledge of both the local and foreign issues. They also interact with local and regional multicultural communities, and maintain a good relationship with them to ensure the fight on insecurity is successful. In dealing with a multicultural community, there is always the risk of having terrorists hiding in the community making it difficult for law enforcement agencies to detect any wrongdoer or terrorist for that matter. Ironically, the law enforcers are tasked with providing security to this multicultural community despite the presence of terrorists. Local law enforcers are equipped with skills and resources to deal with the terror threats and attacks before, during and after the attacks.
Essentially, law enforcers need a lot of training in detecting any act of terrorism. It may be that the local law enforcers are biased in trying to detect the terrorist because people of a Muslim origin are perceived to be terrorists, which may not be necessarily the case. Since the society is multicultural, it is bound to have people of a Muslim origin who may be victimized for being perceived to be terrorists. It is important for the local law enforcers to approach this issue with intelligence and to change their perception on who really qualifies as a terrorist.
Local law enforcers undergo vigorous training to ensure that th...