Police Operational Art for a Five-Dimensional Operational Space
by John P. Sullivan and Adam Elkus

Police Operational Art for a Five-Dimensional Operational Space (Full PDF Article)

The last fifteen years have yielded a rich literature on structural dimensions of modern-day tactics and operational art, particularly on the challenge posed by information age command and control (C2) technology, decentralized swarming, and irregular opponents. The linguistic shift of “battleground” to “battlespace” recognizes the current reality of forces operating in a multidimensional battleground against complex opponents. Similarly, many have recognized that in a rapidly urbanizing world, cities will be the main battlefields in fights between military/police units and “hybrid” opponents. “Global cities” such as New York, Tokyo, London, and Mumbai have become prime targets for terrorists, networked insurgents, and criminal organizations. Operations in global cities carry a special weight because of the strategic compression created by globalization, and pervasive communication networks—raising the significance of what would ordinarily be considered purely tactical counterterrorism operations.

In our previous pieces “Postcard from Mumbai: Modern Urban Siege” and “Preventing Another Mumbai: Building a Police Operational Art” we’ve explored the operational level of police and counterterrorism response. While military doctrine for operations is sophisticated and battle-tested, police operational doctrine has lagged behind. Counterterrorism response—situated in a complex operational space (opspace)—can now be considered as part of the operational level of maneuver, the midlevel point where strategic objectives are implemented on the theater level. Genuinely operational doctrine for this unique form of engagement is underdeveloped, consisting of an ungainly mishmash of police, military, and emergency response tactical doctrine.

Police Operational Art for a Five-Dimensional Operational Space (Full PDF Article)