Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Editorial
Policing Terrorism
Editorial by P.A.J. Waddington
conviction of individuals than they are with a comforting myth (that police do little to dis-
disrupting and undermining activities that pel) that policing serves the public, whereas
threaten the state. This casespecific approach in fact everywhere police forces are state insti-
of policing not only focuses on individuals tutions ultimately serve their paymasters. In
rather than wider patterns and processes, it Britain, the symbol of the Crown adorns virtu-
terminates with the verdict of the court. Skills ally every police uniform and any threat to the
and knowledge are experientialbeen there, Monarch and her heirs acquires unparalleled
done itrather than reflectively analytical. concern. Thus, when an intruder (Michael
Implicit in the distinction is that the mili- occupants whom they could not possibly have
tary fights wars, whereas the police enforce seen (Urban, 1992). This is how war is con-
the law and pursue criminals. Terrorism blurs ducted: before opening fire, A10 tankbuster
that distinction: it differs significantly from crews dont call upon the occupants of enemy
the generality of crimes: it is committed by armoured vehicles to surrender. Yet, crim-
those who believe themselves to be dedicated inals are afforded more generous treatment:
to a higher cause, in pursuit of which they are the onus is upon the police to demonstrate that
often willing to suffer the risk (or in the case of use of lethal force is necessary as a last resort.
suicide bombers, the certainty) of grievous
their fateful and fatal attacks on 11 Septem- opinion led by parliamentary and media crit-
ber none of the alqaeda terrorists had done ics. Nevertheless, it too represents an intrusion
anything to distinguish themselves from the into privacy that undermines the value of the
background clutter of thousands of others. liberty that the state is sworn to defend.
Learning to fly aircraft without paying atten- Just as terrorism obscures the binary opposi-
tion to taking off and landing is bizarre, but tion of crime and war, so the states response
temptingly discounted as the indulgence of a also blurs the distinction. Fake identity is the
bunch of rich kids with time on their hands. stock in trade of subversives and of fraudsters
Yet, in retrospect, however, it is regarded as alike, and technologies designed to authen-