LAPD leads the way in local counter-terrorism

A commander's checklist is a link from traditional police work to intelligence to combat terror attacks.
By Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 14, 2008
Since 9/11, authorities have urged local police to become the front line in domestic counter-terrorism, gathering street-level intelligence about crimes and suspicious activities that could foretell another attack.

But for various reasons it has not worked out that way. The nation's 17,000 local law enforcement agencies have gathered information in their own haphazard ways or not at all, authorities and experts say. Most police officers, after all, are trained to gather evidence to prove crimes, not to cultivate and analyze intelligence to prevent terrorists from striking.

Now, however, a Los Angeles Police Department official has devised a solution that is considered so cheap, so easy to implement and so innovative that federal authorities in Washington are considering making it a national model for all police departments.

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