Boston Marathon Bombing
The events surrounding the Boston bombing of 2013 clearly illustrates the significant role played by the Boston Police Department. In relation, the institution is portrayed as one that worked hand in hand with federal agents in attempts to safeguard the state from similar unaware attacks. In relation, the role of the police in homeland security is embedded on four sectors, which will be critically evaluated in the paper. The Boston Marathon Attack occurred on April 15th, 2013. Two bombs went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The Bombs killed three spectators and injuring over 260 other persons.
After a four-day intense manhunt shutting down the Boston area, police captured a bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a 19 years old. However, Dzhokhar brother and fellow suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev died the same day because of a shootout with the law enforcement officers. The investigation summarized that brothers organized and executed the attacks themselves without any linkage to the particular terror group (Volpp, 2014). The two brothers had spent much of their childhood in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was scheduled for trial in November 2014 and the federal prosecutors declaring to seek the death penalty. The attack took place at 2:49 in the afternoon during 5600 runners’ still racing.
The investigation was launched involving over 1,000 federal, state and local law enforcement personnel. On April 19, the Boston area was on lockdown. The school was closed, public transportation halted and populace advice to stay inside their homesteads. The police conducted door-to-door manhunt in Watertown while military-style vehicles were patrolling the streets. On the very evening, a Watertown man went out his backyard after the law enforcement had halted searches. The man went to check on his dry-docked boat from where he observed the inside of the covered, 24-foot vessel and startled to find blood and an individual. The person was later recognized as Dzhokhar in hiding. He called 911 immediately, and the police arrived and circumscribed the boat. The alleged wounded terrorist was taken into custody. Tsarnaev reportedly scrawled a note that Boston Bombing was in response to the U.S wars in Muslim nations. At the period of the bombing, Dzhokhar was a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
The role of the police in homeland security
Each and every police department has its independent role that it plays regarding homeland security. Community policing, is crucial to public safety at all levels be it at local or communal levels, or on the national scale. Conversely, one of the roles that have adequately formulated by the police body includes policing terrorism which aims at terrorism threats prevention.
As of late, a lot of exertion has been put resources into diverting the part of law implementation to shielding life and property from a large number of inside and outer dangers (Friedmann & Cannon, 2007). Country security approach battles that, on the neighborhood level, data gathering, coordination with state and government offices, framework insurance, and improved advancement of police group connections will encourage anticipation, and help reaction to potential fear of terrorist assaults.
There is the need for more critical observation of foreign travelers, heightened level of data sharing among federal, state government police offices and the inescapable requests for more security, more observation, and more government energy to avoid comparative assaults later on.
Strategies adopted by police force after boston bombing
With the Boston bombing, the four strategies can be played out as some of the strategies that were adopted by the police force soon after the tragic experience (Mayer, Carafano & Zuckerman, 2011).
- Prevention: the police force prevents acts of terrorism through a mechanism of information sharing and counter-terrorism operations and investigations.
- Protection: the police force not only aims at the provision of protection for the members of the Boston community but the country as a whole. Conversely, the same is done via the use of a comprehensive risk management approach.
- Mitigation: Employ the use of coordinated reduction efforts in attempts to reduce the loss of life by lessening the probability of future disaster.
- Response: The police force should respond quickly to save lives, mitigate further harm after an event, protect property and meet basic human needs.
With particular reference to the Boston bombing, Police regulatory training directs that officers consider a few key components when settling on the choice to shoot their weapons. They should evaluate the threat postured to bystanders and local occupants; they ought to know the position of other fellow officers and they ought to stop to reassess the circumstance on the off chance that they can, instead of just keeping on pulling the trigger.
In relation, more than twelve officers endured minor wounds amid the commotion. However, the suspects had injured none. Richard Donohue, a travel cop with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, was hit in the crotch by a police projectile and started to drain bountifully, sustaining a serious injury in the process.
References
Caruson, K., MacManus, S. A., Kohen, M., & Watson, T. A. (2005). Homeland security preparedness: The rebirth of regionalism. Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 35(1), 143-168.
Friedmann, R. R., & Cannon, W. J. (2007). Homeland security and community policing: Competing or complementing public safety policies. Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, 4(4).
Mayer, M. A., Carafano, J. J., & Zuckerman, J. (2011). Homeland Security 4.0: Overcoming Centralization, Complacency, and Politics. Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies..
Volpp, L. (2014). The Boston Bombers. Fordham Law Review, 82.
