ITACG Intelligence Guide for First Responders 2nd Edition - ISE.gov

intelligence guide for first responders - 2nd edition | how to
74
reporting suspicious activity
“Whether a plan for a terrorist attack is homegrown or originates overseas, important knowledge that may
forewarn of a future attack may be derived from information gathered by state, local, and tribal government
personnel in the course of routine law enforcement and other activities.”
- National Strategy for Information Sharing, October 2007
Because of the nature of their work, the more than 800,000 law enforcement and 1.2 million
firefighters in the United States are perfectly poised to identify criminal activity that may
be percursor indicators of acts of terrorism. In many instances information that is based on
suspicious behavior has led to the disruption of a terrorist attack, the arrest of individuals
intending to do harm, or the corroboration of existing intelligence. It is of utmost importance
that information on suspicious activities be shared with and between federal, state, local, tribal,
and private-sector partners.
Suspicious activity reporting should be made available to your local area fusion centers and
Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) in a timely manner.
The Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI)
The NSI is a comprehensive and coordinated effort to establish a “unified process for
reporting, tracking, and accessing SARs” in a manner that rigorously protects the privacy
and civil liberties of Americans. The NSI strategy is to develop, evaluate, and implement
common processes and policies for gathering, documenting, processing, analyzing, and
sharing information about terrorism-related suspicious activities. The long term goal is that
federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement organizations, as well as the private sector,
will participate in a standardized and integrated approach to SAR.