Introduction
The Freedom Act of 2015 was a revised version of the USA Patriot Act of 2002. The idea to the Freedom Act was to give law enforcement and the intelligence community more tools to help fight terrorism. These tools are heavily based on surveillance. However, like all bills that are proposed to congress there is some good and some bad that come along with it, and this bill is no exception. Now is the time to expand the security measures to find the proverbial “needle in the haystack”, a person that could be working for ISIS or another terror group which will only be found through farther investigations and surveillance and giving the tools to those that perform these tasks. While it may seem that the United States as swung more
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The lone wolf surveillance has had some success in the fight against terrorism and has been reformed to contain illegal uses. Since the former head of Homeland Security even feels that this is a dire threat that needs attention this is a program to keep and expand on. So the policy that I would recommend to the executive and legislative branch is to first treat lone wolves as a criminal matter which means local law enforcement and federal agents conduct the searches and get warrants to investigate or arrest. Since lone wolves act alone and usually have no ties to foreign terror groups so there is no reason for the intelligence community to get involved. Grant them their fourth amendment and get a warrant so if an arrest is made the evidence obtained will not be inadmissible in court. Another crucial part of investigating possible lone wolves is using more technology, especially social media. This was mentioned by the Secretary of Homeland Security as being a source for some home grown terrorism (Johnson, 2014). Expand the searches by using twitter, Facebook, and others to locate anti-American rhetoric, praises for terror groups, and anything that might seem dangerous. If these are found then start tracking the individuals that post it. It is the first amendment right to say what you want, but by searching a public website like Facebook agents could find clues on who some possible suspects are. This with the original tactics on lone wolf surveillance should increase the success rate of this