Homeland Security and Community Policing: Competing or Complementing Public Safety Policies

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist atrocities in the United States, a new organizational policy was introduced as “Homeland Security.” Both a concept and a governmental department, homeland security became the “in” policy, and as such invented a new organization and a new approach to public safety. As a result, however, the dominant policing policy up to that time — Community Policing — was largely sidestepped by homeland security efforts as well as budgets. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that the two public safety policies actually have a great deal in common, and that homeland security is to benefit from integrating principles of community policing in its localized strategies.