Panel Dishes On Terror Policing

The police commissioner whose department responded to the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks discussed balancing counterterrorism policing and democratic ideals with two other panelists at the Institute of Politics last night.

New York City Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said the NYPD seeks to “gather intelligence and deploy resources” to combat terrorism, while also making an effort to “protect the civil liberties of our citizens.”

Kelly joined Nick Hardwick, the chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which handles complaints against police in England and Wales, and Kathleen M. O’Toole, the commissioner of the Boston Police Department and a member of the Patten Commission. During the Northern Ireland peace process, the Patten Commission was responsible for recommending a set of policing reforms that were eventually implemented.

Guggenheim Professor of the Practice of Criminal Justice at the Kennedy School of Government Christopher Stone, who moderated, kicked off the event by describing policing in democracies as “policing that is accountable” to the public, civil government, and society in general.

The panelists discussed counterterrorism policing and how to address the concerns about civil liberties that it creates, as well as how public trust in police forces can be maintained, particularly through internal and external investigations of police conduct.

Kelly said his department uses officers stationed overseas and trained in foreign languages, searches of subway passenegers, increased security at bridges and tunnels, radiation detectors, and a recently created counterterrorism bureau within the NYPD to combat terrorism. The department has a strong, “proactive” Internal Affairs Bureau and is subject to the scrutiny of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, both of which help to protect the rights of the public, he added.

All of the panelists emphasized the importance of public confidence to the success of police forces. They suggested that such trust can be fostered through the use of effective mechanisms for reviewing complaints about police conduct. These include internal affairs bureaus like the one Kelly discussed and external bodies like the IPCC and many of the Patten Commission reforms.

Kelly said that the tourism industry in New York is booming and that the city can function securely even while hosting high-profile events like 2004’s Republican National Convention in the shadow of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“What surprises me most is how little day-to-day life has changed,” he said.

—Staff writer Matthew S. Lebowitz can be reached at mslebow@fas.harvard.edu.