FEMA Hosts Webinar on Remaining Vigilant, Stopping Threats
The National Office of Citizen Corps, a division of FEMA, will host a webinar titled “Suspicious Activity Reporting: Stopping the Threat,” live Tuesday at 2 p.m. EDT. The event will feature presentations by representatives from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the New Jersey Transit System and is part of Citizen Corps’ Community Preparedness Webinar Series.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano launched the “If You See Something, Say Something” public awareness campaign this summer. The campaign was originally implemented by New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority, and DHS says it plans to expand the campaign nationally with public education materials, advertisements, and other tools to engage travelers, businesses, community organizations, and public and private sector employees to remain vigilant and play an active role in keeping the country safe. The campaign is designed as a simple and effective program to raise public awareness of indicators of terrorism, crime, and other threats and emphasize the importance of reporting suspicious activity to the proper transportation and law enforcement authorities.
What happens after police receive a report of suspicious activity from a concerned civilian? The “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign is working in concert with the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (NSI), a program managed by DOJ. NSI establishes a national capacity for gathering, documenting, processing, analyzing, and sharing suspicious activity reports. The NSI plans to achieve its goals by using innovative technological solutions for information sharing and by using existing data collection methods, then making them available to participating law enforcement agencies and partners through a federated search capability.
NSI’s Tom O’Reilly and DHS’s Sara Kuban, director of strategic communications, will join Citizen Corps for the webinar to discuss national initiatives led by DHS and DOJ and explain the overall strategy and goals of these programs. Chief of Police Chris Trucillo of New Jersey Metro Transit Police Department will provide the local perspective of how transit and law enforcement agencies can help stop the threat of terrorism and utilize the public as a resource to collect vital information.
To log in as a guest for the event, go to https://connect.hsin.gov/suspicious.