Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI)

Bureau of Justice Assistance

22 pages
June 11, 2009

Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI)
•Responds directly to the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 and to the direction of the National Strategy for Information Sharing (October 2007)
• Purpose: To establish a unified approach at all levels of government to gather, document, process, analyze, and share information about terrorism-related suspicious activities
• The NSI is based on the ISE-SAR Functional Standard
• Ensures that terrorism-related SARs are made available to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and state and major urban area fusion centers
• Integrates state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies’ SAR processes into a nationwide standardized and institutionalized effort

What is a SAR?

•“Official documentation of observed behavior that may be indicative of intelligence gathering or preoperational planning related to terrorism, criminal, or other illicit intention”
• SAR process focuses on what law enforcement agencies have been doing for years—gathering information regarding behaviorsand incidentsassociated with crimeand establishing a process whereby information can be shared to detect and prevent criminal activity, including that associated with domestic and international terrorism
• Examples: Surveillance, photography of facilities, testing of security

…

ISE-SAR Evaluation Environment (EE)

Site implementations accomplished at:

Boston, Massachusetts Police Department

Chicago, Illinois Police Department

DoD Force Protection

Florida Department of Law Enforcement

Houston, Texas Police Department

Miami-Dade, Florida Police Department

New York State Police

Virginia State Police

Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department

Initiating hardware and software procurement for:

Las Vegas, Nevada Metropolitan Police Department

Los Angeles, California Police Department

Department of Homeland Security

eGuardian, (Federal Bureau of Investigation)

Additional sites pending implementation:

Phoenix, Arizona Police Department

Seattle, Washington Police Department

…