Policing in the United States is an extremely fragmented enterprise. Policing is overwhelmingly the responsibility of local and state governments and answerable to local elected officials. There about 18,000 separate law enforcement agencies in the U.S. Nearly 16,000 are local jurisdictions. They are mostly small agencies with fewer than 25 sworn officers (~75%) and all are independent. The remaining agencies are a combination of federal non-military, transportation police, university police, and various authorities and bi-state agencies.
Given this state of extreme decentralization, discuss the issues with information sharing pre 9/11 and those facing the U.S. today. Has anything really changed, or are the old devisions still a major stumbling block to the seamless sharing of information? Most of the information needed to answer this question can be found in ch. 7 of the “A New Understanding of Terrorism” text, however, feel free to use any other information that comes from authoritative sources.
Your response should be about 4-5 pages long. It should be brief and to the point. Please do not make it any more complicated than necessary.