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.