The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington raised the demands on law enforcement. Those increased demands have already led to some increases in law enforcers' legal authority, and that trend will--and probably should--continue, at least for a while. It helps to separate these legal changes into two categories: special powers that are limited to the fight against terrorism, and changes in the authority of police across the board. The subject of this Essay is that second category. As things stand now, the law that polices the police is at once too lax and too strict. Some of these dysfunctional features appear precisely in areas where the fight against terrorism is most likely to place pressure on the law. In the wake of September 11, these conditions present a large opportunity. It may be possible, by fixing some of the law's worst mistakes, to give the police more power while also giving citizens more liberty and privacy--a Pareto move in a sphere where such moves are rare.
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