Exploring Community-Oriented Policing as an Anti-Terrorism Approach Post 9/11: A Case Study

The 9/11 Commission Report opined that part of the problem in preventing the 9/11 terrorists attacks was the lack of community partnerships which fuse community and law enforcement members in efforts to identify suspicious terrorist behaviors. The lack of community partnerships essentially reflects the absence of capable guardians, which contribute to the increased risk of terrorism. A literature review emphasized the community-policing concept has imparted the same goals and strategies applied in the past for partnerships in crime prevention, and complements prevention efforts against terrorism in homeland security. Few studies have focused on the guardian construct of the routine activity theory (RAT) sociology theory. The lack of federal guidance towards specific anti-terrorism programs for local law enforcement and community members after the 9/11 terror attacks with current emerging domestic terror threats continues to be problematic. The purpose of this qualitative explanatory holistic case study was to explore how the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and Los Angeles community members perceived their partnerships toward anti-terrorism measures taken to address the current lack of federal anti-terrorism guidelines. The unit of analysis consisted of the LAPD along with the single phenomenon consisting of the unique LAPD iWATCH anti-terrorism program. Eighteen participants for the study were purposefully sampled with semi-structured interviews conducted. Participants consisted of ten LAPD law enforcement participants and eight Los Angeles community members. The researcher employed the constant comparative method (CCM) to identify emerging themes among interviewee responses. The CCM method enabled the determination of codes, which were sorted into themes from interviewed participants. Four key themes and ten associated concepts were derived from the data analysis. The findings revealed the RAT guardian construct complements both the iWATCH and community-policing concept in anti-terrorism efforts. The findings also revealed the apparent increase of youth involvement in terrorist organizations, make it is necessary to promote greater awareness among the impressionable youth against terrorist radicalization and recruitment. These findings fill a void in the RAT guardian construct literature, as these variables can play a greater role in anti-terrorism prevention efforts. Recommendations for practice included community and law enforcement leader's improvement regarding the level of awareness and application of the LAPD's iWATCH community based anti-terrorism program. Recommendation for future research included a quantitative study of the guardian construct in anti-terrorism efforts against emerging terror threats.