One Federal Law Enforcement Organization Assignment

One Federal Law Enforcement Organization - Assignment Example In counter-terrorism, the agency serves a variety of functions entailing nuclear security, aviation and chemical security concerns, fraud and counterfeit and information sharing. The roles of the DHS in border security and immigration include apprehension, convicting and deporting of illegal immigrants which are geared towards ensuring that the USA is secure (DHS, 2012). Due to overlap in crime fighting responsibilities, the DHS, state and local law enforcement agencies are interlocked in crime fighting. The DHS undertakes some activities with the aim of maximizing cooperation and assisting the local agencies in their objectives in crime fighting. For instance, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of the DHS collaborates with local and state agencies to create a united and seamless front for disruption of transnational crime (DHS, 2011). The DHS also bears better capacity in logistics and intelligence from which local agencies gain through information sharing. The relationship between the DHS and local and state law enforcement agencies has not always had a positive effect. The overlap in crime fighting responsibilities that exists between the two- federal (DHS) versus local and state levels- has not been traditionally well managed. For instance, the roles of the DHS in special operations, forensics, criminal intelligence and disaster response may clash with local and state arms charged with special investigations, forensic services, criminal investigations and emergency planning and response (Richman, 2000). In such cases, it is evident that counteractive clashes in interests may hinder crime fighting and, thus, jeopardize the missions of all levels of law enforcement involved. The main cause of the problems noted above stems from the occurrence of crimes that are multi-jurisdictional. This situation results in a situation where the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies deem