Abstract

Teaching Cops About Terrorism

In January a message went out on, New England's police Teletype network: the department in New Britain, Connecticut, would host a "terrorism seminar briefing" on February 18 and 19. The course was open to "any police department wishing to enroll any full-time officers," at a cost of $125 per participant. Some two-dozen officers, most of them from Connecticut but some from as far away as Maine, attended. In April about seventy-five police officers from the Pacific Northwest gathered for a three-day terrorism conference in Boise, Idaho, sponsored by the Ada County, Idaho Sheriff's Department. The courses have little to do with terrorism. They are devoted largely to providing information on peace groups, opponents of nuclear power, and other nonviolent, left-leaning protesters. The presentations are spiced with rabid anti-Communism and cover such subjects as infiltrating protest movements, gathering intelligence and controlling political rallies.