BJA FY 20 State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Information Sharing Technical Assistance Program

Many accomplishments have been made since 9/11 in the collection, sharing, coordination, and integration of information for the purpose of defeating terrorism and improving homeland security. These accomplishments are remarkable, considering the complexity of the fabric of the nation's counterterrorism and homeland security enterprise, which consists of the private sector; state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) law enforcement, fire/emergency services, and emergency management; state and major urban area fusion centers; federal law enforcement and federally supported regional information sharing programs such as the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) and Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS); the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ); the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The above accomplishments, though significant, are not an end state. There is much work to be accomplished, in particular focusing on the domestic nexus of national security and public safety. As emerging threats become more distributed and decentralized, it is essential to define a more aggressive approach to further share terrorism-related information and improve homeland security.
To help achieve this goal, the DHS and DOJ, in partnership with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI); the FBI; and experts from the state and local communities-including the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative (Global) and the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC)-have worked together to facilitate the development of SLTT intelligence and analytic capabilities. Through discrete, targeted activities such as workshops, seminars, exchanges, and technical assistance offerings, this consortium has achieved significant success in providing the support necessary to assist the SLTT partners in improving their capability and capacity as required by and in accordance with national policy and doctrine, including the National Strategy for Information Sharing (NSIS), the Fusion Center Guidelines, and the Baseline Capabilities for State and Major Urban Area Fusion Centers.

In order to continue to capitalize on the successes of this consortium to facilitate the development of state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) intelligence and analytic capabilities, as well as the increased levels of experience and expertise that are being gained from the collaborative efforts of DHS and DOJ, BJA, in collaboration with DHS, will partner to administer this Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) program to support the standardization of information sharing practices; the identification and sharing of SLTT information; the exchange of promising practices and lessons learned; and the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI).