Police officers are responsible for keeping peace in the country. They apprehend and pursue individual who breaks the law, solve issues of the community, enforce traffic law, arrest suspected criminal, investigate crimes and respond to emergencies. They are usually assigned to patrol particular areas to be familiar when inspecting suspicious circumstances. Training is significant before one becomes a police officer as it will expose him or her to a new situation to handle challenging tasks during the career life. I think the best education level of the police should be college degree level. The college degree level is ideal for the police officer because it will make an individual to spend some years in the training before becoming a police officer. Those years taken in college will enable one to develop emotionally and enhance his or her decision process. Thus, after the college degree, one will be mature to make the critical decision by assessing the situation before making any decision (Frej, 2014). Also, ethical classes are necessary for the police officer as it will equip them with non-perishable skills to enable them to find ways of solving issues other than using force. Therefore, college education assists the police officer in developing certain perceptive on life about situations, people and how to address issues. Besides, it helps them to make a critical decision on whether to use force or not in a given situation thus reduce the likelihood of using force.
Role of local law enforcement in homeland security
Homeland security refers to deterrence, defence against, prevention and aggression targeted at the territory of US, Population, sovereignty and infrastructure as well as controlling the impacts of such aggression and domestic issues. Local law enforcement, thus is involved in intelligence -gathering, information sharing and crime prevention (Orthmann, Chou & Hess, 2014). The local police officers are involved in this role as they complete the suspicious activity and compile the reports which they share with the local law enforcement (United States, 2003). They also take all possible steps to avoid the terrorist attack and respond to any attack by carrying investigation. The police officers also identify their enemy and prepare themselves, their community and department. The local law enforcement also educates citizens about the symbols and signs of terrorism and give direction on what should be done in case suspicious activity is detected.
Serious cybercrimes occurring today
Cybercrimes have become more dangerous, prevalent and sophisticated. Both the public and private sector network are targeted by the hackers. Besides, the companies and sensitive corporate data are also targeted by the fraudsters. The more severe cybercrimes occurring currently include tax-refund fraud, corporate account takeover, identity theft, theft of sensitive data and intellectual property. To begin, tax refund fraud is the most rampant crime in the recent years. The crime affects mostly the taxpayers where the hackers employ their tool to search and identify their information from the internet (Singleton, 2013). The cyber-criminal usually uses the identifying information of the living person. When the personally identifiable information about the legitimate taxpayer is used, the IRS can take about 12 months to find a solution to the issue and release the refund to the owner. Thus, once the cybercriminal obtains the information, they make up claims standard deductions, tax credits, withholding information and eventually complete a return that produces a large refund. Then he or she will file electronically the fraudulent tax return which makes it a cybercrime. The returns are filed electronically because IRS do not include W-2s in the electronically filed returns. The IRS will only discover the cybercrime file returns after the crime is complete.
Solution to Tax-refund fraud.
The CPAs should assess their security policies and privacy and ensure that the client data is secure by establishing internal control. The police officer should also participate in education campaigns or initiatives of cybercrime prevention to protect the community from cybercrime activities.
Theft of sensitive data
Sensitive data, such as debit and credit cards, information about the businesses store, trade secrets, personally identifiable information, source code, employee records and information of the customers face serious cyber-attack. This crime makes the victims incur a lot of costs and involve both financial costs and public image damage related to legal fees, loss of business and increasing the measures of security.
Solution
Theft of sensitive data can prevent through using of embedded chips to read credit card information instead of magnetic strips. Also, the police should ensure that the consumers enter their PIN for identity verification (Dave, 2014). Hence, the administration should participate in the immense undertaking of changing credit card readers and all credit cards in the country.
The impact of protecting homeland security of community policing.
In protecting homeland security, community policing have also been involved in countering the terrorism. Involving the local law enforcement in homeland security has, therefore, result in organizational transformation on the local law enforcement personnel. There is an ongoing training of the law enforcement officials to bring about the transformation. Initially, local enforcement was concerned with solving and preventing crimes, theft, burglary and robbery in the local community (Docobo, 2005). I think involving the law enforcement on the national role of homeland security may lead to confusing the role of the military and that of the police. Since the homeland security was initially the role of the military, they may become ineffective in carrying out their duties as they will abandon some of the responsibilities to the local law enforcement. Besides, without enough training, the law enforcement personnel may find it difficult to respond to armed criminals and emerging terrorism threats.
References
Dave W., (2014). The Role of Local Law Enforcement Agencies in Preventing and Investigating Cybercrime. Washington: Police Executive Research Forum.
Docobo J., (2005). Community Policing as the Primary Prevention Strategy for Homeland Security at the Local Law Enforcement Level. NPS center.
Frej W., (2014). U.S. Police: Education levels and the use of force. New York: MSNBC.com
Orthmann, C. M. H., Chou, H. L., & Hess, K. M. (2014). Introduction to law enforcement and criminal justice. Australia: Delmar
Singleton, T., (2013). THE TOP 5 CYBERCRIMES New York: American Institute of CPAs, American Institute of CPAs.
United States. (2003). Homeland security: Assessing the needs of local law enforcement: hearing before the Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Seventh Congress, second session, March 21, 2002. Washington: U.S. G.P.O.
