The Justice Department is shutting down a program that trains officers how to combat terrorism. The State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training program, which has served more than 142,000 law enforcement officers in every state in the country, has run out of funding. Its last day is Sept. 30, reports the Kansas City Star.
“It makes absolutely no sense,” said Mike Sena, president of the National Fusion Center Association, which represents a network of 79 centers across the country designed to help law enforcement agencies collect and share terrorism-related information.
“Eliminating programs that are critical to preparing our people in the field to identify threats before they manifest and cause harm to our public is an egregious error.”
Sena and other law enforcement experts also question the effectiveness of a domestic terrorism task force the Justice Department revived in 2014. At a time of heightened concerns about violence, they say, they’ve heard nothing about the task force or its efforts, nor have they been asked to participate.
