Daniel Rubin: Another case of TSA overkill

“Just when I thought I was out of the Transportation Security Administration business for a few columns, they pull me back in.

Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn’t allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?

“

(Daniel Rubin: Another case of TSA overkill | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/15/2010)

Al-Qaeda has a new strategy. Obama needs one, too.

“In the wake of the failed Christmas Day airplane bombing and the killing a few days later of seven CIA operatives in Afghanistan, Washington is, as it was after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, obsessed with ‘dots’ — and our inability to connect them. ‘The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack, but our intelligence community failed to connect those dots,’ the president said Tuesday. “

(Source: Al-Qaeda has a new strategy. Obama needs one, too. – washingtonpost.com)

Agency’s intelligence report violated rules

“The Department of Homeland Security issued but recalled a 2007 intelligence analysis about the Nation of Islam after deciding the document dealing with the black Muslim group broke rules on intelligence activity in the United States, officials said Wednesday.

Internal documents revealed that intelligence chiefs found analysts had ‘unintentionally and inadvertently’ violated rules governing the collection, retention and distribution of information concerning ‘U.S. persons and organizations.’ The error took place during the Bush administration, and steps have been taken to ensure it does not happen again, a DHS spokesperson said.”

(Source: Agency’s intelligence report violated rules — latimes.com)

Immigration sweep nets 280 with criminal records

“Immigration agents arrested 280 people in California in their biggest push yet to round up suspected illegal immigrants with criminal records in local communities, authorities said Friday.

More than 400 agents and local law enforcement officers fanned out across the state in the three-day search led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

‘These are not people who we want walking our streets,’ ICE director John Morton said. ‘We’re going to focus on those people who choose to pursue a life of crime in the United States rather than pursue the American dream of education, hard work and success.’”

(The Associated Press: Immigration sweep nets 280 with criminal records)

Federal travel tips: Get H1N1 shot, have papers in order

“Directives issued Thursday by federal officials advise holiday travelers to have their papers in order, suggest what kind of shoes to wear and encourage those about to travel to get seasonal and H1N1 flu shots.

The federal agencies also guide travelers on how to cough and sneeze.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department, Transportation Security Administration, Centers for Disease Control and other federal agencies issued the travel tips and suggestions for those planning to travel during the Thanksgiving holiday.”

(Source: Federal travel tips: Get H1N1 shot, have papers in order – Phoenix Business Journal:)

ICE to Audit 1,000 More Companies in Immigration Crackdown

“Immigration enforcement officials said Thursday that they were expanding a program for auditing companies that might have hired illegal immigrants and had notified 1,000 companies this week that they would have to undergo such a review.”

(Source: ICE to Audit 1,000 More Companies in Immigration Crackdown – NYTimes.com)

E. coli outbreak hits East Coast, kills 2

“Two people — one in New Hampshire and a second in New York — have died, 16 have been hospitalized and 28 have been sickened in an outbreak of E. coli that may be linked to ground beef distributed on the East Coast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.

As of October 28, there have been 28 persons whose illness appears to be associated with this outbreak, all but three from the Northeast. Eighteen of the 28 are from New England, says the CDC’s Lola Scott Russell. There have been two cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome, which causes kidney failure. “

(Source: E. coli outbreak hits East Coast, kills 2 – USATODAY.com)

H1N1 flu virus kills 16 people in Michigan, hospitalizes 396

“Swine flu has killed 16 Michigan residents, hospitalized 396 and sickened scores of people as demand exceeds supply for the H1N1 vaccine, Michigan Department of Community Health officials said Monday.

‘We are at number you might see at the peak of a bad flu season,’ said Gregory S. Holzman, state Chief Medical Executive. ‘This is unprecedented.’

The news comes as the number of people reporting flu-like illnesses continues to spike, schools are closing across Michigan, hospitals are starting to ban children from visiting and health departments are administering the H1N1 vaccine to groups deemed most at risk. “

(Source: H1N1 flu virus kills 16 people in Michigan, hospitalizes 396 | detnews.com | The Detroit News)

Toward Operational Art for Policing

by John P. Sullivan and Adam Elkus -

The military, facing a complex and intractable mixture of “wicked problems” on the battlefield, has responded with a doctrinal revolution in the production and practice of operational theory.  But most police agencies don’t incorporate the “operational level of maneuver” into their planning and concept of operations.   We face a constellation of complex “high-intensity policing” problems such as counterterrorism, transnational organized crime and gangs that demand development of a true operational art and doctrine, rather than current focus on tactical response. The police service desperately requires an understanding of operational theory and must develop operational doctrine to successfully address contemporary threats.

The Mumbai operation demonstrates the problem facing tactical counterterrorism response. Multiple elements utilizing swarming tactics and an overarching command and control node overwhelmed a police command overwhelmingly oriented on tactical encounters. Closer to home, cartels and street gangs have posed operational challenges to police throughout Latin America, showing discipline and coordination largely disdained by American gangsters.

Police practice is largely structured around managing individual incidents and cases.  This is often expressed as tactically responding to calls for service or individual SWAT responses. A broader, comprehensive view of the operational space as a whole, and the impact of multiple tactical operations is largely absent.  Concepts such as operational space shaping, intelligence, threat early warning and operational maneuver are largely ignored. This tactical mindset hinders coordination of complex crimes and disasters and degrades interagency cooperation. The closest thing to operational coordination in police operations is the Incident Command System (ICS) and National Incident Management System (NIMS). While NIMS provides the backbone for operational coordination in active incidents, it is mainly logistical and command-oriented. NIMS’ incident-specific nature does not provide a “command concept” for continuing and future operations

Police are understandably wary of appearing to be too militarized, but the near systemic ignorance of operational theory and insights arising from the military counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations will not serve police well if criminal insurgents or terrorists target the domestic space. The trend of “global guerrillas” waging netwar has been observed for twenty years and there is little reason to think that it will cease.  Additionally, there is a convergence between police and military operations abroad that could be a source of insights for police response to potential and emerging high intensity threats.

Perhaps most harmful is the lack of an intellectual forum for doctrinal research and development. Police journals focus overwhelmingly on the tactical or technical level of operations. It is important to make sure that tactical response is pitch-perfect and that use and acquisition of equipment is satisfactory to police needs. These are the building blocks of operational response. But in order for operational innovation to occur law enforcement agents on the local, state, and federal level must be able to share their insights with each other in a scholarly forum. Journals and forums for doctrinal debate, red teaming and strategic futurism would do much to help the growth of operational police doctrine.

What would operational theory for police look like? In military theory operational art occurs at the theater level, the place where strategic objectives are implemented tactically. Yet the operational art is not a collection of tactical engagements. Rather, it is a concept of how to best use organizational resources to implement strategic aims. The operational level of police engagement is much smaller than the military theater level. But on the regional level, particularly in major metropolitan areas like Los Angeles County or New York City, the challenge is just as great. Operational doctrine for police would focus on harmonizing three strategic capabilities: understanding and shaping the operational space, intelligence/investigations, and operational response.

Understanding and shaping the operational space is easily the most important of the three. Gaining advantage over criminal netwarriors and terrorists requires deployment of police resources in flashpoints or trouble spots, understanding the population through community policing, and formation of plans for community resilience.

As response to irregular foes is largely a targeting duel, developing an ability for targeted intelligence and investigations on a “geosocial” level is an important tool. Police already carry out investigations of organized crime and terrorism, but such investigations need to be integrated into a larger capability for net assessment of the operational space as a whole. Police need mechanisms for building a holistic view of the operational space, including open-source intelligence and social scientific survey. These abilities can inform operational concepts for action as well as better guide deep indications and warning (I&W) assessments to head off terrorism, crime, and insurgency.

Operational response must be formulated to deal with swarming. We have outlined such a concept in our papers “Postcard from Mumbai: Modern Urban Siege” and “Preventing Another Mumbai: Building a Police Operational Art.” Police must mobilize quickly to halt attackers in place, isolate their positions, and then neutralize them with heavier follow-on forces. In turn, command and control (C2) functions and doctrine must become agile enough to support police during operational level engagements. The police commander must be able to visualize his forces in space and time.

All of these steps can help build what RAND analyst Carl H. Builder called a “Command Concept.” Command concepts of future operations inform the usage of resources and the nature of information that must flow up and down the chain of command. They enable a more intuitive command and usage of information. Command concepts are indicative of a genuinely operational focus. Tactical focus, however, inevitably leads to a focus on the technical level of operations as a means of supporting tactical missions. In a complex emergency, a tactically and technically-focused commanding element finds themselves a prisoner of their tactical equipment, reacting to rather than guiding events.

Building a command concept for police operations will not be easy. An institutional focus on tactics will be difficult to overcome. Building operational concepts—i.e., an appreciation and application of operational art—is essential to future excellence in the modern operational space.   An understanding of the operational level of maneuver and conflict, as well as the development of doctrine and “network protocols” for operational maneuver is necessary to address the new constellation of challenges and threats facing the modern urban “global city.”

John P. Sullivan is a career police officer. He currently serves as a lieutenant with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department where he is assigned to the Emergency Operations Bureau. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies on Terrorism (CAST). His research focuses on counterinsurgency, intelligence, terrorism, transnational gangs, and urban operations. He is co-editor Countering Terrorism and WMD: Creating a Global Counterterrorism Network (Routledge, 2006).

Adam Elkus is an analyst specializing in foreign policy and security. He is currently Associate Editor at Red Team Journal. His articles have been published in Red Team Journal, Small Wars Journal and other publications. Mr. Elkus blogs at Rethinking Security, Dreaming 5GW, and the Huffington Post. He is currently a contributor to the Center for Threat Awareness’ ThreatsWatch project.

For Additional Reading

John P. Sullivan and Adam Elkus, “Police Operational Art for a Five-Dimensional Operational Space,” Small Wars Journal, July 2009.

John P. Sullivan and Adam Elkus, “Preventing Another Mumbai: Building a Police Operational Art,” CTC Sentinel, June 2009.

John P. Sullivan and Adam Elkus, “Postcard from Mumbai: Modern Urban Siege“, Small Wars Journal, February 2009.

Detroit-based task force targets crime spilling over U.S. border

“The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unveiled today a 50-member task force comprised of federal, state, local and Canadian agencies designed to combat cross-border crimes.

The Border Enforcement Security Task Force, or BEST, will focus on national security and terrorist threats, human smuggling and trafficking, contraband smuggling, money laundering, bulk cash smuggling, transnational gang activities and other criminal acts. The team, which is the third along the northern border, covers 721 miles. The initiative will be housed in the federal building downtown.

‘For those who are involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking or selling firearms, the international border really doesn’t exist,’ said Terrence Berg, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. “

(Detroit-based task force targets crime spilling over U.S. border | detnews.com | The Detroit News)

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