Policing into the Twenty-first Century

The millennium had barely begun when international terrorists commandeered passenger airliners and turned them into flying bombs. September 11, 2001, is a date that will be etched for all time in memories of Americans. Since then, we have witnessed increased security and scrutiny by all levels of government. But are we any more secure than we were pre-September 11, 2001? The Patriot Act of 2001 was enacted and just recently the USA Patriot Act Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2006 was enacted. In October 2005, in the name of securing life and liberty, we witnessed warrantless searches of persons in New York City subways and of vehicles and persons at the scene of a bomb threat in Baltimore, Maryland. In both situations, no bombs or explosives were found nor were any persons suspected of terrorism arrested. Yet everyone submitted voluntarily to a search.