FIGHTING TERRORISM BEGINS WITH LAPD.

Byline: Jack Weiss  Local view

Fans of the anti-terrorist drama "24" may imagine Keifer Sutherland is the typical hero keeping Los Angeles safe every day. While federal agent Jack Bauer solves terrorist crimes season after season, in Los Angeles the more likely hero wears LAPD blue.

In the real effort to prevent terrorist attacks in Los Angeles, ordinary crimes can lead to extraordinary finds. For example, last year two American-born suspects were arrested in a series of gas station robberies in the South Bay area. At first the crimes appeared to be routine armed robberies, but local Torrance police got Washington's attention when they reported the discovery of jihadist materials and targeting information at a suspect's home.

These suspects looked like terrorists in the making. With radical Islamic contacts forged in prison, they seemed to be planning terrorist attacks in Southern California. Fortunately for the potential targets in L.A., the plot was discovered before it was too late.

Without a doubt, police play a critical role in homeland security, and counterterrorism activities go hand in hand with fighting gang and other crime.

That's why the City Council needs to approve Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Homeland Security and Disaster Preparedness Initiative, which will provide the resources that Los Angeles Police Department Chief William Bratton needs to fight terrorism and violent crime.

The choice before the City Council is not whether to fund homeland security instead of other police priorities. The choice is whether to recognize the role that counterterrorism plays in local policing and to authorize the staffing and resources that are necessary to provide local homeland security in Los Angeles.

Federal agents work on complex cases that may involve international networks and multiple jurisdictions. Focused on the big picture, they cannot be counted on to notice and respond to the smaller clues about terror plots that may be hatched in Los Angeles and other cities.

Local cops have unique knowledge about the communities they serve. They are better positioned to notice suspicious activities, and leads followed on a hunch can develop into major investigations. Local cops can gather intelligence through relationships with communities and they may uncover terrorists engaged in low-level precursor crimes.

In Los Angeles, Bratton has coped with a lack of federal funds for police overtime and anti-terror positions by shuffling his existing resources. He has redeployed borrowed officers from other divisions to ensure that adequate staffing is provided to local homeland security while repeatedly seeking the necessary support for the Counter Terrorism & Criminal Intelligence Bureau.

With few exceptions, Bratton's pleas have fallen on deaf ears until Villaraigosa recently proposed making borrowed positions permanent and improving intelligence capabilities. The plan also provides needed disaster response resources for the Los Angeles Fire Department. If intelligence and policing aren't enough to prevent an attack, first responders must be prepared to cope with the aftermath.

It is time to acknowledge that the threat of terrorism is a daily fact of life in Los Angeles just like New York and Washington, D.C., and that Jack Bauer isn't going to help Los Angeles, so the city must help itself.