The United States Military Support to Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies - Research Proposal Example

The literature used in this review of secondary information was taken from various texts, journals, memos and available verifiable internet sources.

Among the sources used for research purposes are Congressional Research Services reports, RAND Arroyo Center and the Homeland Security journal. During the searches, certain keywords and phrases were used including, “military and police merge,” “securing America's borders,” “posse comitatus,” “border surveillance including military,” and “drug trafficking organization capabilities.” Various available texts were also included as a result of the searches committed. The approach taken will look at the information requested, briefly describe each approach and why it was taken, and show its validity as applied to the goals outlined in the paper.

The law governing the use of the military in direct conjunction with domestic-based law enforcement agencies is the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits federal personnel (i.e. military) from being directly involved in local law enforcement matters. This, however, only applies to local matters affected and affecting the local populace, as the interdiction of illegal drugs and the crime accompanying that interdiction affects the populace as a whole the Posse Comitatus Act may not necessarily apply. Inclusion of the military in local law enforcement efforts on the Southwestern Border may continue, “This use of the military in antidrug law enforcement was approved by Congress in 10 U.S.C., sections 371–381.” (Major Trebilcock, 2000 para 7)As a part of the MSCLEA under Chapter 18 of Title 10 of the U.S. Code, § 374 allows Department of Defense (DOD) personnel to maintain and operate equipment for a variety of purposes, including aerial reconnaissance and the detection, monitoring, and communication of air and sea traffic, and of surface traffic outside of the United States or within 25 miles of U.S. borders, if first detected outside of the border. (Mason, 2010 p 7)

Currently, as a part of the initiative, MSCLEA unmanned UAVs are being tasked to patrol along the border and record, monitor and watch the border on both sides of said border. As of late June 2010, the Air and Marine (A&M) branch of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP’s) office is operating between 5 and 6 Predator B UAVs out of Fort Huachuca/ Sierra Vista, Arizona’s municipal airport. These Predator B UAVs were originally built for the DOD and its various military branches, though they are not tasked through the DOD the technology and support systems are. (Haddal, Gertler, 2010 p 4) Deploying additional drones and support staff in mobile command centers along the border would assist with increased response time and still be within the boundaries of the law.

Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO’s) have many available resources as well, however, with the technology, support and administrative assistance of the United States military these “advantages” assist in overcoming the DTO’s current potential. (Drug Trafficking Organizations, 2006) Because of the use of weapons and people in a constant flow from Mexico into the United States continues it would be within the bounds of the law, i.e. The Posse Comitatus Act to deploy active duty and reservists in set positions along the border to act as support and interdiction when violence flares.

In 2009 a Rand report was released with regards to the need for military and local police being brought together as an appropriately named, Stability Police Force (SPF) this report was directed at current operations by the United States in other much smaller countries. However, the idea pre-eminent in the paper was that the military and local police could be merged into an effective civil force. The direct tasks of the SPF were, the performance of high-end policing tasks, identifying and deterring high-end threats, criminal investigations, SWAT, crowd control, and intelligence collection and analysis. (Kelly, Jones, Barnett II, Crane, Davis, Jensen, 2009 p17) The research gathered and disseminated allows us to understand the current approaches being undertaken within the government and to assess the desired goal.