Can Local Police and Sheriff's Departments Provide a Higher Degree of Homeland Security Coordination and Collaboration Through Consolidation of Police Services

摘要

Police consolidation is examined in this thesis because it fits with the homeland security mission of integrating and coordinating intelligence information, standardizing policies, procedures, and training, leveraging police resources in combating terrorism, while working to create a uniform response system to major police incidents. Though this thesis has a special focus on San Mateo County, California, the makeup of the San Mateo County system of small jurisdictional policing within specific boundaries is replicated throughout the United States. The claim of this thesis is in order to provide integrated homeland security protection to communities, cities must abandon decentralization for consolidated policing. This thesis will use a comparative case study model and policy options analysis to examine the benefits of police consolidation. The overarching theme is this country continues to face challenging threats against determined terrorist and local police agencies have an obligation to become an integral part of the homeland security mission. To fulfill that obligation, cities must explore abandoning the current fragmented system of policing for a system that promotes coordination of intelligence, uniformity of policy and procedures, standardization of training, comprehensive prevention plans and unified response procedures that address the unique challenges facing police in the twenty-first century.