Police paradigm shift after the 9/11 terrorist attacks: the empirical evidence from the United States municipal police departments

Abstract

This research attempts to provide empirical evidence to the claim that community oriented policing (COP) has been supplanted by homeland security policing after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. This empirical evidence is important as it tries to unravel if the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks influenced the focus of police departments away from COP. The 1999, 2003, and 2007 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics were used to analyze the differences among US police departments in the implementation of COP components before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The findings suggest that except for problem solving, police departments have de-escalated their emphases on COP components overall. Additionally, these changes were shown as consistent across every region in the United States. Further research is needed to determine if this trend is for the long term or just temporary. Also, future research should investigate the impact of this paradigm shift on the relationships between community and police officers.

Keywords:

• homeland security policing
• community policing
• terrorism
• LEMAS

Notes

1. See the pros and cons about this issue in Dempsey and Frost (2011) and Roberg, Novak, and Cordner (2010). These textbooks presented competing arguments about the new direction that police departments should take in response to the 9/11 attacks. Likewise, Murray (2005) presented an extended treatise debunking the arguments made by de Guzman (2002) on the incompatibility of COP and HSP.

2. Paradigm shift is used in its generic sense and more in reference to how Punch (2005) defined it as a major reform ‘whereby the values and practices of policing are substantially renewed’ (p. 268). Kuhn’s (1996) discussions of a paradigm is based on accumulation of scientific evidence to suggest that a theory has attained a paradigmatic status either based on consistent empirical confirmations or a major acceptance of its tenets as bases for action. These are two differing conceptualizations of paradigm. The generic sense is used in this article.

3. See the edited book by Weisburd, Feucht, Hakimi, Mock, and Perry (2009) for more extensive articles on police counter-terrorism practices as well as the shifting focus of policing to homeland security policing. Likewise, Shernock’s (2009) edited volume presented examples of counter-terrorism practices across the world.

4. All indicators in 1999 model and 2003 model have significant regression weights at p < .05 level. Model fit statistics indicate that both models fit the data well.

5. This problem solving model was originally proposed by Eck and Spelman (1987).