Infrastructure Challenges

Law enforcement in the United States in neither centrally directed nor homogenous. As such, it does not readily fit the definition of infrastructure set out in the report of the Critical Infrastructure Working Group. Local, State and Federal law enforcement agencies have their own (and sometimes unique) geographic and statutory jurisdictions, as well as operating procedures that may or may not overlap or coincide. The Attorney General is the chief Federal law enforcement officer and has authority to oversee the activities of Federal law enforcement agencies and Federal efforts to provide assistance to local law enforcement authorities. However, no Federal authority exists to oversee the activities of non-Federal law enforcement agencies. Because of the diversity and redundancy of the U.S. law enforcement structure, there appears to be almost no realistic vulnerability or group of vulnerabilities that could debilitate the entire law enforcement system through physical attack. This said, there are four areas examined in this paper which may prove to be