Are Cops Prepared To Deal With Terrorist Threats?

[Rainman]

Late last month, a terrorist organization called for attacks on American shopping malls. The warnings at least served to make everyone more vigilant. I understand it's the intelligence agencies jobs to respond to such threats but supposing something gets by them, are police officers capable of neutralizing such threats?

Do cops get some special training to deal with terrorists when the need arises?

 

[Gabe]

I doubt the local police will have training for it, but maybe they should? In the UK because it is smaller and the police forces are generally united, it can be easier to implement protocols. If hostages are involved it always requires a different agency, but police are on hand to deal with the immediate situation. I think there are protocols to follow, but when things are time sensitive it can be hard. Having worked in a major airport, we always had police around to deal with these situations and in malls and big centers there are protocols to be followed in case of a threat and they have emergency contact to call if anything happens.

 

[Patrick]

I think that police can help with perimeter security and other general things in the event of a terrorist attack, but they should leave the main anti-terror operations to specialized military units.

 

[timelord731]

How prepared can they be? There are already special divisions specifically for terrorist.

 

[missbishi]

How prepared can they be? There are already special divisions specifically for terrorist.

Yeah, we have anti-terrorism units in my country too. Here, the police are always the first people to arrive at the scene of any terrorist incident and I'm oretty sure that they undertake training refresher courses when the nation is under any particular threat.

 

[dyanmarie25]

I don't think police officers are prepared to handle terrorist threats and attacks. Maybe, they could help with the basic security tasks. But I don't really think they are fit into this kind of job, not enough training for that.

 

[marcamm]

I think getting ready against a terrorist attack might be possible but very hard to do. Which is why I would say that cops in general aren't prepared for it. There is a reason we call them "terrorists;" they are to terrorize us. A great reason we are so terrorized by them is we do not know when or where they will strike. We don't even know what kind of tricks will be up their sleeves. There is a thing called "Fear of the Unknown" - which is exactly what terror is.

 

[DancingLady]

I don't think it is part of standard training at this point, except for maybe in cities that have some major targets. I don't think local cops have the training or proper equipment to deal with terrorist threats. I am not sure that is really appropriate for them to have either. I think that is more military, as terrorism is a form of war in a sense, and the use of serious weapons requires specialized equipment and weapons to handle it in a way that can minimize casualties as much as possible.

 

[Gelsemium]

Some special forces might be prepared, but other police forces don't have that training. Times have changed fast so special training needs to exist to face current issues.

 

[JoanMcWench]

Local cops are rarely prepared for terrorist threats. Though that's why if there happens to be a plausible threat others are called in to protect the area. So, realistically, no they're not prepared but there's a system in place that's supposed to help that vulnerability lessen.