It was a tip to the FBI that started the investigation into Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, the New Jersey terror suspects who appeared in court for the first time Monday. But with U.S. citizens being increasingly recruited to commit acts of terrorism, law enforcement leaders and experts say local police must be the first line of...
FBI raids a home at 269 Falmouth Ave in Elmwood Park, N.J. suspected to have ties to terrorism suspect Carlos Eduardo Almonte who was arrested Saturday before he boarded a plane at JFK airport.
It was a tip to the FBI that started the investigation into Mohamed Mahmood Alessa and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, the New Jersey terror suspects who appeared in court for the first time Monday. But with U.S. citizens being increasingly recruited to commit acts of terrorism, law enforcement leaders and experts say local police must be the first line of defense.
"Police officers know their community," said Robert Coulton, president of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police. "That’s a great resource pool that can be tapped by county, state and federal authorities."
That bottom-up approach exemplifies how the perception of how to fight terrorism has changed since Sept. 11, said Christopher Andreychak, former State Police deputy superintendent of investigations. Those attacks spurred police departments to prepare for the worst, setting up their own high-tech command centers.
Many of those command centers ended up closing, but New Jersey’s stayed open and redirected its goals, he said. Instead of aggregating international intelligence to apply locally, it focused on local crime that could bubble up into larger plots.
Some of those cases have paid dividends, Andreychak said. One investigation into drug dealers in Newark helped uncover ties to a Middle Eastern smuggling operation.
"There was more to this than a street-level operation," Andreychak said.
One of the lasting lessons of 9/11 was the perils of agencies not sharing intelligence.
"We can’t tolerate another example of one agency not sharing information with anymore," said former New Jersey Gov. Tom Kean, who chaired the 9/11 Commission.
In some ways, local cops have stepped up to the plate. Counterterrorism training is becoming more standard at all levels, and New Jersey police use two computer systems to share intelligence on potential terrorism activity. Officers on patrol can enter information on suspicious activity into a $1.6 million statewide homeland security database that is also used by the FBI. For example, a cop could log a report on someone photographing a train station, Coulton said.
"Taken by itself, it doesn’t seem like a big thing," he said. "But if that same individual is at four different stations doing the same thing, it may be."
Another system, still in the trial phase with a $3.6 million price tag, allows authorities to search various local and county law enforcement records for leads and trends.
"It resembles Google for law enforcement," said Jose Lozano, spokesman for New Jersey’s Department of Homeland Security and Preparedness.
Law enforcement experts say relationships with local communities are also crucial to gathering intelligence, although winning their support can be difficult. Jersey City Police Department spokesman Lt. Edgar Martinez said many immigrant communities arrive in the United States already distrusting the police.
"It goes back to where they come from," he said. "A lot of people don’t trust the police in those countries."
Yaser El-Menshawy, president of the New Jersey Council of Mosques, said the Muslim community’s relationship with the FBI can feel "one-sided."
"They look at the entire commuity as being suspect," he said. "To them, there’s no such thing as somebody that’s completely innocent or completely clean."
El-Menshawy said ties with local police are healthier.
"They interact with people and if they think there’s a problem, they get involved," he said. "The relationship between Muslims and their local community tends to be pretty good."
Jeff Diamant contributed to this report.
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