Law Enforcement Tactics and Their Effectiveness in Dealing With American Terrorism: Organizations, Autonomous Cells, and Lone Wolves

Christopher Hewitt

Terrorism and Political Violence, 2014, vol. 26, issue 1, 58-68

Abstract: The article examines law-enforcement activities in 20 cases of terrorism and 38 cases of terrorism prevention, using published records. It proposes a seven-fold classification of police actions and examines which tactics were successful in identifying and apprehending perpetrators. Overall, in capturing those responsible for terrorist attacks, the most successful tactics were routine policing, the use of informers, and information provided by the public. Organized terrorism campaigns were most vulnerable to informers and surveillance, while the most effective tactics against lone wolves were witness identification and information from the public. The most successful terrorist preventions involved informers and surveillance.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2014.849913

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