Adjusting to Terrorism
One potential administrative change I would make in the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to combat terrorism is the establishment of a task force specifically dedicated to monitoring online terrorist activity and radicalization. The task force should include professionals from relevant fields, including psychology, linguistics, and criminology. Their roles will include monitoring social media language use, conducting behavioral analysis, and identifying potentially terrorism-motivated online activity. In an era when the freedom of expression is constitutionally guaranteed, there is a thin line between free speech and potentially terrorism-related radicalization. Specialized personnel will analyze digital content to avert radicalization and ensure that whatever gets flagged down does not amount to trampling on the right to free speech.
Prior Situation
Currently, the FBI uses its security personnel to monitor social media activity to monitor extremist content across social media and other digital platforms. One of the weaknesses of the current system is that it only analyzes publicly available information (Levinson-Waldman et al., 2022). While the analysis of publicly available online content may contribute toward averting terrorist activity, it does not fully address the issue, as most radicalization occurs on private platforms. Also, a lack of sufficient specialized personnel to identify and analyze terrorist content may prevent the detection of radicalization and terrorist content (Levinson-Waldman et al., 2022). Officers without training in linguistics and behavioral analysis only focus on direct terrorist content and fail to detect other trends that may point to someone with terrorism ambitions.
Why Introduce a Specialized Unit to Monitor Online Terrorist Content
One of the reasons the FBI should establish a specialized unit is to establish an effective collaboration with tech and social media companies. Unless the content is highly offensive or explicitly encourages extremist content, social media companies are unlikely to flag it down since there is a lot of content online, making it hard to filter out extremist content (Zanini & Edwards, 2001). However, with such a partnership, intelligence-sharing will be possible as the FBI’s specialized team shares profiles that disseminate such content. Besides, the partnership will facilitate tech and social media companies to formulate algorithms that will flag extremist content and prevent further dissemination of radicalization messages that may contribute to a spike in terrorist activity. Currently, such collaboration is impossible due to the many agencies that handle terrorist activities and government bureaucracy. Noteworthy, authorities failed to forestall the 9/11 attacks partly due to the existence of many agencies dealing with the same issue separately, making it hard to perform collective intelligence-led operations.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (2019), the specialized online monitoring team will boost global coordination. Notably, some of the most devastating terrorist attacks in the U.S. were planned elsewhere before the terrorists traveled to the U.S. For instance, the Boston Marathon bombing was planned outside America until the final plan was disseminated to attackers on U.S. soil. The same applies to the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Center. Also, the 2015 series of attacks in France was planned elsewhere before attackers were mandated to attack. One of the attackers even posted online, suggesting an impending attack, but French authorities did not detect the content. A specialized online extremism monitoring team will focus on online activity in the U.S. and other countries (Department of Homeland Security, 2019). Subsequently, the team may share critical intelligence with authorities in the other respective countries to avert the attacks. Local authorities may respond by arresting potential culprits. Terrorism is a global issue that requires concerted government-government intelligence sharing to avert attacks, radicalization, and the culture of disseminating terrorist content.
Resources Requirements to Implement the Change
The planned administrative change at the FBI will require significant resources to achieve success. First, additional human resources will be required to implement the change, and this may include linguistic analysts, legal advisors, and behavioral analysts. On the technological front, the additional resources required may include cutting-edge data analysis tools for FBI personnel and critical international partners. Since terrorism also comes in the form of cyberattacks, the criminal justice agency may require enhanced cybersecurity infrastructure to thwart cyberattacks.
Conclusion
Overall, the creation of a specialized FBI task force to monitor online activity will foster the FBI’s capability to forestall digital radicalization and terrorism activity. The change will correct the current situation, whereby the FBI only accesses publicly available content and struggles to access private information due to government bureaucracy. Once the specialized team comes into place, it will partner with tech and social media networking companies to build algorithms that will prevent the dissemination of extremist content. Also, a specialized FBI team will boost global coordination in forestalling digitally motivated terrorist activities.
References
Department of Homeland Security. (2019). Department of Homeland Security strategic framework for countering terrorism and targeted violence. https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/19_0920_plcy_strategic-framework-countering-terrorism-targeted-violence.pdf
Levinson-Waldman, R., Panduranga, H., & Patel, F. (2022, January 7). Social media surveillance by the U.S. government. Brennan Center for Justice. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/social-media-surveillance-us-government
Zanini, M., & Edwards, S. J. (2001). The networking of terror in the information age. Networks and netwars: The future of terror, crime, and militancy, 32.
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Question 
Write a 700-word paper on an administrative change you would propose to make in a criminal justice agency in an effort to combat terrorism more effectively.
Adjusting to Terrorism
Describe the prior situation, the reasons for the proposed change, and the anticipated positive results or potential negative consequences of the change.
Identify the resources the change would require or make available—financial resources, human resources, and training dollars—and the management support the change would need.
Format your paper according to APA guidelines.