The American Security System - Research Paper Example

Lecturer The American security system has experienced major changes and overhaul of previously existing policies that were changed to suit a new element of security requirement especially after 9/11. When the state perceives an element of threat that could be from drugs, terrorism or crime then the police have been mandated to implement particular systems of surveillance with the power accorded to them to respond to these types of threats. The other element that is focused on besides surveillance is the policy of stop-and-frisk as a security apparatus to maintain levels of security in the United States of America. There have been several events that have triggered the re-evaluation of the way civil privacy protection is balanced with police surveillance. During the period that has passed after the terrorist attack of 9/11, there have been diverse changes being implemented in the technological advances; federal law and the interpretation of privacy safeguards by the courts have created an expansion in the ways through which the police may facilitate surveillance of different civil activities or in the ways through which they can frisk citizens in public places for any particular reason. The rationale of this article is to scrutinize the different factors that may promote the escalation of police surveillance with regards to the type of effects that police surveillance has on civil life and privacy rights while also drawing conclusions on newspaper reports on the situations whereby issues have been raised in regards to stop-and-frisk policy. (http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles4 (3)/escalating.pdf‎) The way people view privacy and surveillance have been dramatically altered over the years and the change has been more evident in the balance between individual privacy rights and police surveillance authority. A significant section of the American public attributes the change to the 9/11 event to have catalyzed the search authority that has been related to the police surveillance. Surveillance has been modified and made quite inclusive of elements that were not previously connected to threat warnings, and with the advances made in the technology platform, a thin line has to be drawn as to what is acceptable by law and what should be considered as interference with the rights of an individual. Any form of threat to the safety of the American public has been defined in the constitution with the recommendations on the specific ways through which these issues of threat to national security have to be handled appropriately in an amicable way that is acceptable under law. The key hitch is that there have been numerous cases that have recorded instances whereby these laws are infringed upon. http://www.surveillance-and-society.org. It is important to create an understanding of what the word surveillance means and what can be considered as surveillance. The activity of surveillance can be described as when the police gather information on an individual or on individuals. This could be done through technological and human gazing whereby security officials watch physical activities and movements of a person or it could occur when there is an acquisition of personal data of an individual being surveyed. The personal data in this case may include transactional, biographical or biometric data of the person of interest from their records, documents, identifiers, electronic transactions or personal communications. The surveillance seeks to acquire documentary or voice information that could be useful in prosecutions or criminal investigations and could also be in the form of CCTV data to be used as evidence. The meaning that is clear from the elements presented above is that surveillance is the official gathering of related information about person for the purposes of prosecuting offenders or in the prevention of crime. The systems of surveillance have often created major problems with some citizens who have reported harassment by the authorities or in some cases there have been reports and court cases whereby the citizens have pointed out to inconsistency in the implementation of the laws that regard surveillance and personal freedoms. (William, 208-224) The stop-and –frisk tactics that have been applied by the law enforcement agencies in different sections of the country has raised issues with many people and human rights organizations and the latest discussion was brought forward in New York when Mayor Bill de Blasio made a public announcement in regards to a recent court ruling whereby a case was filed that there were elements of police brutality and discrimination in the selection of people to be frisked along the streets of New York. The main complainants in that case were majorly African Americans and Latino whereby the mayor made observations that a change was inevitable as he sought to distance himself from the tactics that were employed by the security personnel who worked under his predecessor. “We’re here today to turn the page on one of the most divisive problems in our city,” said by Mr. de Blasio at a news discussion. “We believe in ending the overuse of stop-and-frisk that has unfairly targeted young African-American and Latino men.” (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/nyregion/de-blasio-stop-and-frisk.html). The utterances were being made in regards to the court ruling that decreed that “stop-and-frisk tactics were unconstitutional” The judge observed that the tactics had been converted into indirect systems of racial profiling that specifically targeted the Latino and Africa American youth. (Benjamin & Joseph, A1) Getting back to the issue of surveillance that runs concurrently with the stop-and frisk designs of security maintenance, one has to discuss one outstanding factor that is foreign visitor surveillance. (http://thomas.loc.gov/.) The American police system has been utterly concerned with international visitors in the American soil, especially after the attacks of 9/11 and so any threat posed by a foreign citizen always places the police in high alert. An article written in 2006 in the Washington Post documented the steps taken by the government to militarize the country’s borders, especially around Mexico with the purpose of curbing elements of human trafficking. With the aim of monitoring foreigners, Homeland Security has devised different programs that seek to regulate and document the visitors who are within the American borders. The airports have been fitted with face identification gadgets that record faces of visitors and run them through the databases of the Security apparatus and those in the “no-fly” list can be excluded from “Secure Flights” and are prohibited from getting into United States. The order of scrutiny has, however, exposed international visitors to rigorous processed of checking and security protocol which have to be done due to the character of safety that makes it essential. (Baker, A01) The stop-and-frisk systems that drew the attention of the mayor in New York were addressed in a public forum as the mayor sought to implement one of the campaign pledges he had made during his campaign. The statement had an impact because it was made in one of the neighborhoods whereby these tactics had been met by public disapproval in the Brownsville Recreational Center which is a predominantly black neighborhood. The area had witnessed the highest number of reported instances of police brutality and this would be seen as a show of solidarity from the part of the Mayor who had pledged equality before the law in his campaign season. (Benjamin & Joseph, A1). The two factors explored in this paper are some of the political factors that currently affect the society especially in the ways in which they are implemented. The two are a couple of outstanding factors that directly affect the current society to the point of changing values of civil liberty that has documented public tolerance to the systems of state surveillance and security for a long time now. Work cited Baker, P. “Bush Set to Send Guard to Border,” The Washington Post, May 15, 2006, p. A01 http://.washingtonpost.com. 2006. Online. Accessed 16April 2014 Benjamin, Weiser & Joseph, Goldstein. Mayor Says New York City Will Settle Suits on Stop-and-Frisk Tactics http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/31/nyregion/de-blasio-stop-and-frisk.html). Jan.30, 2014, p. A1. Online William, Bloss. Escalating U.S. Police Surveillance after 9/11: an Examination of Causes and Effects. http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles4 (3)/escalating.pdf‎. 2007. Online accessed 17 April 2014 http://www.surveillance-and-society.org. Online http://thomas.loc.gov/. Online Read More