Best Practices in Policing Violent Extremism: Comparative United Kingdom and United States Approaches

• In Event: How Well the State Controls Terrorism

Abstract

This paper examines policing approaches to countering violent extremism in the United Kingdom and United States. Using case studies from three different cities, this paper examines how three disparate police forces, with varying degrees of support from and coordination with national government, developed and implemented policies to monitor, prevent and counter violent extremism between 2001 and 2015. This paper offers new and original insights into domestic British and American policing policies implemented between 2001 and 2015 to counter not only Al Qaeda and ISIS inspired violent extremism, but other types of violent extremism threats as well. This paper draws on original documentary analysis of key British and American policing and policy documents. This paper also draws on original interview data from 35 interviews with leading British and American counterterrorism policymakers, law enforcement officials and counterterrorism advisors to government. This paper is one of few empirically based comparative analyses of terrorism policing policies in the United Kingdom and United States in the post-9/11 period.

Author

• Tara Lai Quinlan, University of Sheffield