Intelligence and Law Enforcement: Bridging the Cultural Divide
Abstract
On November 19, 2002, the United States Congress passed the Homeland Security Bill launching the largest government reorganization since the creation of the Defense Department in 1947. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will fold 170,000 employees from 22 agencies into a new organization charged with the responsibility of shoring up the nation's defenses against terrorism.2 A critical mission of this new organization will be analyzing and promulgating information on terrorist threats to the government and people of the United States. To be successful, the DHS must fuse information provided by national-level intelligence organizations with that from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies (LEAs). Given the importance of this new mission, what insights can we glean from previous intelligence-law enforcement cooperation efforts? A good example would be the military's entrance into the war on drugs during the late 1980s. Experience gained from this campaign indicates that the DHS will have to overcome significant cultural and organizational hurdles in managing information on terrorist threats. Despite numerous setbacks, the war on drugs did produce cases where cooperation between national-level intelligence and law enforcement organizations led to success. Will the Department of Homeland Security learn the right lessons from the war on drugs or is it destined to make the same mistakes?
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA442105
Entities
People
- Eric L. Dahlstrom
Organizations
- National War College