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| L.A. police use intel networks against terror | |
| 2011-04-13 | |
| Los Angeles has one of the few big-city police departments with a dedicated counterterrorism intelligence program. “We’ve tried to institutionalize the idea of [counterterrorism] within the department so that people become collectors. People know what the threat is, they understand the threat domain, they know who the adversary is, what the capability is, what the intent is.” Until several years ago, only 30 members of the police department engaged in counterterrorism intelligence work. That number grew to 750 in November after the special operations branch was added to the 300-member unit of officers working the intelligence operations against terrorists. The department’s intelligence branch uses a “hunt-and-pursue” strategy employing analysts who study data collected by police and networks of recruited informants and other surveillance to identify groups or people planning attacks. Police forces then act to disrupt the operations. “We spend an enormous amount of time observing prayer, going to festivals, going to events, showing that we are not just asking for these communities for a buy-in, but we want enrollment, participation,” Chief Downing said. “We spend a lot of time explaining: ‘You live in this country, you’re free to worship how you like to worship, and we protect the sacred text of the Koran, the sacred text of the Torah, and we protect the sacred text of the Bible. And what we need you to do is partner with us in protecting the sacred text of our country, which is the Constitution which gives you these rights and protects you against bigotry and hatred and all those things,’” he said. The objective is to win Muslim support for the U.S. system “which means supporting our Constitution and creating a bigger gap between the hard-core radicals and the critical mass of people,” he said. “And then we can weed out … the hard-core radicals through our hunt-and-pursue model.” “We’ve got some equipment that is pretty incredible,” he said. “If a Mumbai-style attack happened here, it would not last 60 hours, I’ll tell you that. It would last 30 minutes and they might have them contained in a building.”
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