PerspectiveDepartment of Homeland Security Law Enforcement Agencies Require Expanded Oversight

Published 5 June 2020

Hundreds of Department of Homeland Security officers have been called up to serve along with other federal law enforcement officers and the National Guard to provide security within the District of Columbia. The question is whether the deployed officers are adequately trained and prepared for the current tense environment. “Repurposing law enforcement officers to work in a tense civic moment is not as easy as it might sound,” Carrie Cordero writes. If they are not well prepared, “the consequences can range from the embarrassing to the dangerous.”

Hundreds of Department of Homeland Security officers have been called up to serve along with other federal law enforcement officers and the National Guard to provide security within the District of Columbia. The presence of the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Protective Service—both Homeland Security agencies—is routine at the White House and other federal facilities. Carrie Cordero writes in Lawfare that less common, however, is the use of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers alongside local and federal law enforcement to quell domestic unrest.

Exactly how Homeland Security activities will expand on a day-to-day basis to directly engage in law enforcement activity in the District of Columbia or elsewhere is, as of yet, unclear. But the potential for expanded interior Homeland Security law enforcement activity raises questions about whether components of the department being called upon in the tense current environment are subject to appropriate training, preparation and accountability.

When Congress created the Department of Homeland Security in 2002, it did so to better protect the country against terrorism – which, at that time, meant primarily international, Islamist-directed or inspired terrorism. Cordero writes that over time, the department also bolstered its cybersecurity capabilities and responsibilities, and it shares information and intelligence regarding domestic terrorism, an increasing menace. 

[T]oday, the acting secretary of homeland security sits atop the largest federal law enforcement organization in the country, with well over 60,000 law enforcement officers under his authority. The department’s law enforcement manpower dwarfs that of the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, combined. The head of the largest federal law enforcement force in the United States is not FBI Director Christopher Wray or even Attorney General William Barr. It’s Chad Wolf.

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Immediately relevant, however, is whether the deployed officers are adequately trained and prepared for the current tense environment. Repurposing law enforcement officers to work in a tense civic moment is not as easy as it might sound. As we are seeing in the hourly videos pouring in from across the country, some law enforcement personnel are prepared for the unique environment of civilian protests or violence; others are not, and the consequences can range from the embarrassing to the dangerous.