In the 9/11 Commission Report, that is, the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States is a compelling chapter that underscores what to do about protecting America in a new era of terror. The chapter is entitled “How To Do It? A Different Way of Organizing the Government” and it recommends significant changes in the organization of the government. In this chapter, five major recommendations are made which stress “unity of effort”:

• Unifying strategic intelligence and operational planning against Islamic terrorists across the foreign-domestic divide with a National Counterterrorism Center;
• Unifying the intelligence community with a new National Intelligence Director;
• Unifying the many participants in the counterterrorism effort and their knowledge in a network-based information-sharing system that transcends traditional governmental boundaries;
• Unifying and strengthening congressional oversight to improve quality and accountability; and
• Strengthening the FBI and homeland defenders.

The chapter continues with stressing the importance of a “Unity of Effort Across the Foreign-Domestic Divide, Unity of Effort In the Intelligence Community, Unity of Effort in Sharing Information, Unity of Effort in the Congress and Organizing America’s Defenses in the United States.”

These extraordinary insights and recommendations that promote a “Unity of Effort” and organization of America’s defenses against terrorism serve as a foundation for further development of law enforcement and private security partnerships.

In 2000, the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice published “Operation Cooperation, Guidelines for Partnerships between Law Enforcement and Private Security Organizations”. Operation Cooperation is a call to action, which represents a major national initiative to encourage partnerships between law enforcement and private security professionals. The driving force behind this initiative is an awareness of great benefits to be gained from the public-private “unity of effort” partnerships.

According to Operation Cooperation, partnerships undertake a great range of activities that can range from issues of local concern to projects that take on a national significance. Although Operation Cooperation was executed prior to 9/11, it is imperative to emphasize that partnerships have a greater national significance due to 9/11. America’s oil refineries, chemical plants, port facilities and many privately owned installations make up 85 percent of the country’s vital infrastructure and many of these, although not yet target hardened, are prime terror targets which deserve the partnership that law enforcement and private security affords.

Operation Cooperation then clarifies typical activities of collaborative programs with the intent of spurring partnership development. These activities include, but are not limited to:

Networking

• Presentations by one field at conferences, meetings, seminars, etc. of the other field.
• Honors and awards (from private security to law enforcement and vice versa).

Information Sharing

• Appropriate information shared between law enforcement and the private sector.
• Training sessions at conferences and seminars that support needs of both sectors and encourages collaboration.

Crime Prevention

• Joint participation in security and safety concerns.
• Consultations that compliment and encourage community policing.

Resource Sharing

• Lending of expertise particularly related to technical issues such as computer security and physical security concerns.

Training

• Hosting speakers on topics of joint concern including terrorism, school and workplace violence, etc.

Legislation

• Drafting and supporting laws and ordinances on issues effecting security.

Operations

• Joint support in critical incident planning (natural disasters, terrorism, school and workplace violence, etc.)

Elements of Success

Area Police/Private Security Liaison (APPL)

NYPD commanders and prominent security directors in New York City founded APPL in 1986 to enhance public-private cooperation in protecting people and property, to exchange information, and to help eliminate the credibility gap between police and private security. Starting with only 30 private security organizations, it now includes more than 1,000. APPL is the largest local cooperative program between police and private security in the nation.

The chief of the NYPD is APPL’s chair, and a staff officer in the chief’s office is assigned to coordinate the program. APPL’s executive committee consists of five senior security executives (representing both corporate and contract security)

APPL’s lengthy activity includes the following:

• Monthly and annual meetings
• An inventory of private sector closed-circuit television installations for use in criminal investigations
• A specialized business crime squad in Midtown Manhattan.
• Training for security supervisors
• A radio network for doormen
• Monitoring of security-related legislation
• Inclusion of private security representatives in the NYPD command and control center during emergencies
• Email blasts to authorized individuals highlighting current security and safety issues

U.S. Department of Justice’s Unity of Effort
with the International Association of Chiefs of Police

Complimenting the recommendations of The 9/11 Commission Report and Operation Cooperation was a project in 2004 initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services with The International Association of Chiefs of Police. The result was a “National Policy Summit: Building Partnerships to Prevent and Respond to Terrorism and Public Disorder”. This Summit stressed the importance of public-private cooperation and made specific policy recommendations including:

1. Leaders of the major law enforcement and private security organizations should make a formal commitment to cooperation.
2. The Department of Homeland Security and/or Department of Justice should fund research and training on relevant legislation, private security and law enforcement-private security cooperation.
3. The Department of Homeland Security and/or Department of Justice should create an advisory council composed of nationally prominent law enforcement and private security professionals to oversee the day-to-day implementation issues of law enforcement-private security partnerships.
4. The Department of Homeland Security and/or Department of Justice, along with relevant membership organizations, should convene key practitioners to move this agenda forward in the future.
5. Local partnerships should set priorities and address key problems as identified by the summit.

Conclusion

Accomplishments take place when individuals work together. Teamwork is an irrefutable and essential character, which America needs now more then ever. This character can be called collaboration, partnership development or teamwork but unequivocally it is a “Unity of Effort” required for America’s response to an era of terror.

Vincent J. Bove, CPP is a Board Certified Protection Professional, Board Certified Crime Prevention Specialist, Certified Law Enforcement Instructor and U.S. Department of Justice Certified Community Anti-Terrorism Awareness Trainer.

He is the 2007 New Jersey recipient of the prestigious FBI Director's Community Leadership Award and was hand-selected to serve as a facilitator and mentor for the 2007 National Conference on Ethics in America and speaker for the 2008 conference at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

"Vincent J. Bove is considered one of the foremost national experts on school and workplace violence prevention, specializing in facility protection, evacuations, terrorism prevention and leadership training." -- U.S. Senate

You can visit Mr. Bove's website at www.vincentbove.com or email him at vincent@vincentbove.com