Law Enforcement Information Sharing - Essay Example

es and technology (National Institute of Justice, 1999).  Organized criminals, taking advantage of these developments, have become more agile than governmental agencies (Brock et. al. 2006). On the other hand, though technology and other infrastructure are available to law enforcement agencies, democratic governments require a consensus among leaders and citizens to establish priorities and allocate funds before significant changes are implemented. (Broude & Teichman, 2009). This constraint slows down government progress and makes law enforcement a complex process.

Thus, making policy change and implementation becomes difficult and is not always successful (Broude & Teichman, 2009). In contrast, criminals act independent of bureaucracy, advancing their own interests (Beare, 1997). The agility of the criminal enterprises makes it difficult to anticipate criminal activity, making such activity an insurmountable threat (Williams & Godson, 2002). The reluctance of some communities to recognize a developing or already present criminal threat can also contribute to the growth and entrenchment of crime.

(Mackenzie, 2007).        Available literature on the topic chronicles twentieth and twenty-first century efforts undertaken by the federal government to combat transnational crime. (Dowling et al. 2006).  However, there is a dearth of literature on the trends in criminality from the perspective of federal law enforcement officers (Small & Taylor, 2006).  Statement of the Problem: Transnational crimes, especially terrorism, have remained a huge threat to nations all over the world from time immemorial.

Experts in the fields of law enforcement and counter terrorism believe that proper sharing of information among various intelligence agencies in different countries. From this research it is clear that events of September 11, 2001 demonstrate what can happen when the law enforcement community fails to adequately share and analyze information available to them. Those events are an extreme example, but many other terrorism and transnational crimes threatened society long before 9/11 and continue to do so today. The U.S.

Government recognized key information sharing gaps that contributed to the terrorist’s ability to execute their attack and took measures to curtail such gaps in the future. One noticeable paradigm shift was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, merging 170,000 employees from 22 federal agencies, and move by DHS leadership to develop unique “one-DHS” culture. The purpose of this case study is to describe what measures federal law enforcement agencies have implemented, and what steps can still be taken, to enhance information sharing with State and local partners and other peer agencies.

A review of the literature on sharing in the law enforcement community includes an exploration of factors related to (a) An awareness of transnational criminal and terrorist threats before and after 9/11, (b) Human factors related to the sharing of information in person and through technological tools, (c) Organizational changes contributing to information sharing, (d) Factors affecting sustainability of information sharing initiatives. While modern transportation and technology enhanced the developmental activities on one hand, it also accelerated the country’s illegal enterprises on the other.