The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 awoke the American public to the dangers this country faces in the new international reality. With the international travel and communication becoming easier and easier, the potential continues to exist for terrorists to infiltrate this country again and carry out a catastrophic attack. This has led some people to advocate for combining the various police forces across America into one national police organization. I believe that this is not only unwise, but unconstitutional. What is needed is greater coordination among the existing federal law enforcement agencies and greater cooperation between these agencies and state police forces.
The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution reserves all powers not explicitly mentioned by the constitution for the states (US Constitution). In effect, this amendment created a system of dual sovereignty in the United States, where the states have certain powers and the Federal Government has certain powers, and where neither institution can exercise the powers of the other (Walter). In practice, the Tenth Amendment has been interpreted by the courts to mean that the states have the right to provide for the safety and well being of their citizens by policing their own laws through the creation of state police forces. The federal government, on the other hand, has the right to police interstate commerce and other activities that bridge the states (findlaw). Thus we arrive at the bifurcated system that exists today, with the states fielding their own state and local police forces to enforce their laws and the Federal Government fielding multiple law enforcement agencies to investigate and police laws between the states.
Given this constitutional reality, then, it would be unlawful for the Federal Government to create one national police forbe to enforce thd laws within the states. Any such organization would require a constitutional amendment to...