The system is blinking red: lessons learned from policing in the aftermath of terrorist attacks
Policing in a crisis, such as in the aftermath of a terrorist attack where there are mass casualties, or when conducting operations to interdict terrorist plots, is among the most challenging elements of the law enforcement and national security professions. The al-Qaeda terrorist network and associ...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Routledge international handbook of policing crises and emergencies
Year: 2025, Pages: 353-363 |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Summary: | Policing in a crisis, such as in the aftermath of a terrorist attack where there are mass casualties, or when conducting operations to interdict terrorist plots, is among the most challenging elements of the law enforcement and national security professions. The al-Qaeda terrorist network and associated groups, as non-state actors, thrust the United States into severe crisis following the attack on the USS Cole (DDG-67) on 12 October 2000 and the attacks of 11 September 2001. During such crisis, emotions are high and, at times, rationality is low, and fear-based decisions can have unintended and/or unanticipated consequences. We also faced a severe crisis when the US government, following the 9/11 attacks, was found to have wilfully deployed a system of interrogational abuse, including torture. Recognising the failure of the CIA torture programme at black sites and dark prisons and the sister programmes within the Department of Defense that resulted in torture being utilised at the Guantánamo Bay prison and Abu Ghraib scandal, President Bush commissioned a study under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). A resulting report, called Educing Information, released in 2006, revealed it had been more than 50 years since the US government conducted research into interrogations. When President Barack Obama was elected in 2009, he reversed President Bush’s torture policies and established the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG), partly as a remedy for the ODNI report’s conclusion that government spending on research on interrogation has been scant. Given the tremendous importance of questioning people during investigations, including investigations of critical events, the topic is certainly worthy of attention and, indeed, of resources. The HIG is an interagency capability which, at this point, has generated an extraordinarily rich programme of research on interviewing. Authors will provide an overview of how interview and interrogation have developed over time and discuss its utilisation after terrorist attacks on the USS Cole (DDG-67) and for the investigations of the 9/11 suspects. The chapter will discuss research on key elements of interviewing and interrogation, with a focus on ‘what works’, that is, effective interviewing. Further, the authors will discuss the adoption of research-based interviewing techniques into field settings, with the conclusion that such adoption is necessary, but that the success of translational enterprises likely hinges on partnership and collaboration between researchers and practitioners. |
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| Item Description: | Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 362-363 |
| ISBN: | 9781032207872 |
