Adopted at the 119th Annual Conference

San Diego, CA
October 3, 2012

Supporting and Funding the National Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative Program Management Office
Submitted by: Board of Officers
BOA.033.a12

WHEREAS, the findings in The 9/11 Commission Report clearly demonstrated the need for a nationwide capacity to share information that could detect, prevent, or deter a terrorist attack; and

WHEREAS, The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and the 2007 National Strategy for Information Sharing indicate both legislative and executive intent to establish locally controlled distributed information systems wherein potential terrorism-related information could be contributed by the 18,000 state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) law enforcement agencies for analysis to determine whether there are emerging patterns or trends; and

WHEREAS, on December 17, 2009, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) was named the executive agent to establish and operate the Program Management Office (PMO) for the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI), taking on responsibility for coordinating existing resources and managing additional support to further develop and deploy the NSI; and

WHEREAS, the NSI is a partnership among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement that establishes a national capacity for gathering, documenting, processing, analyzing, and sharing SAR information in a manner that rigorously protects the privacy and civil liberties of Americans; and

WHEREAS, the NSI is a collaborative effort led by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in coordination with the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE); the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); Global; and municipal and state law enforcement; and

WHEREAS, the NSI Program Management Office (NSI PMO) has established standardized processes and policies that provide the capability for SLTT and federal law enforcement to share timely, relevant SAR information that has been determined to have a potential nexus to terrorism; and

WHEREAS, support of the Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI) efforts has been publicly stated by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the IACP has been instrumental in the development of and the implementation of front-line SAR training to equip law enforcement officers detect, prevent, or deter a terrorist attack and other criminal activity; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, that the International Association of Chiefs of Police duly assembled at its 119th Annual Conference, recommends that the Federal government fully support and fund the NSI PMO in order that NSI efforts continue to be implemented across the Nation so that it can become ingrained in the everyday routine of the more than 800,000 law enforcement officers in the United States.