Lessons on policing terrorism: studying police effectiveness in Italy and Germany

• Main Author: Born, Phillip Glenn.
• Other Authors: Halladay, Carolyn
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/10745

As terrorism threatens a democratic nation, there tends to be an aversion to deploying military forces to combat the internal threat-rightfully so, as it speaks to democratic principles of rule of law. Because of this tendency, democratic nations tend to focus on law enforcement as the key to a successful counterterrorism strategy. This research effort studies the use of police in two comparable western democracies, Italy and Germany, to determine areas in which police effectively supported the national counterterrorism strategy. It suggests a model for analysis that posits police professionalism, preventative methodology, adaptation of technologies, and interagency cooperation as four areas in which improvements can be made to make police more effective. It finds that despite different political and social conditions in each country, changes made within these four areas consistently contributed to successful national counterterrorism efforts. These findings are further relevant to the current state of counterterrorism efforts in the United States. Lessons from these case studies indicate that Homeland Security efforts should focus on centralization of police efforts, legislation to encourage preventive policing, integrated technology efforts, and more interagency cooperation to ensure a successful internal security environment.