The Prosecutor’s Role in the Fight Against Terrorism
In the years since the terrorists’ attacks of 9/11, our nation has been overwhelmed with news stories about and images of “The War on Terror.” It would be difficult to find anyone who is unaware of the national (and international) fight. Many citizens are, however, unapprised of smaller-scale battles that their communities, large and small alike, are waging against terrorism. The fight against, and prevention of, terrorism starts in our own backyards, and state and local prosecutors play a vital role in this ongoing battle.
In its final report, the 9/11 Commission made a key recommendation to incorporate criminal investigations and supervision in the homeland security process on the state and local level. More recently, in a report on the implementation of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations, the Homeland Security Advisory Council recommended more federal resources for state and local programs to enhance existing intelligence gathering and information sharing and to ensure that information is readily available at all levels of government. With funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the National District Attorneys Association, in partnership with the American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) designed a program to enhance techniques for identifying potential terrorists or pre-terrorism activities. The goal of this project is to train prosecutors and community corrections agencies to recognize activities that have terrorist implications, share that information with each other, make connections between this behavior and terrorist activity and then ensure that relevant data will be shared with regional intelligence fusion centers (collaborative efforts to combine and analyze anti-terrorism information from multiple sources), multi-jurisdictional task forces and joint terrorism task forces (JTTF) located throughout the nation. Prosecutors and community corrections agencies have a long history of mutual dependence and cooperation. This project, which is well underway, will expand existing collaboration to include measures to protect and enhance homeland security.
As the gatekeepers to the criminal justice system, state and local prosecutors are uniquely positioned to ensure that potential terrorists or those providing support for terrorist activity are identified and prosecuted but also that information is effectively shared with state and federal agencies to further enhance intelligence efforts. When suspicious activity recognized by community corrections officers is shared with state and local prosecutors, the prosecutor can make connections between the reported behavior and information they have about the individual being reported that may point to potential terrorist activity. Those connections can then be shared with fusion centers and JTTFs for further investigation. It is key, therefore, for prosecutors and community corrections agencies to be aware of which behaviors are red flags of terrorist activity.
Much attention has recently been paid to lower level crimes that lead and contribute to acts of terror. This “all-crimes” approach centers on the belief that there is a connection between certain criminal activity and terrorism. This activity includes drug operations, money laundering, fraud and identity theft—crimes commonly committed by individuals supervised by community corrections agencies and handled by the nation’s state and local prosecutors. These crimes are thought to be “precursor” indicators of terrorism. It is important, however, to recognize that many behaviors demonstrated by terrorists or those who support terrorist activity, are not criminal and thus go undetected by law enforcement, prosecutors and community corrections officers. It is important, therefore, for community corrections officers and prosecutors to recognize those behaviors that have terrorist implications—criminal or not.
The first of many tasks in this project was to convene an advisory group meeting. NDAA and APPA called on a group of experts from across the nation to serve on the advisory group. The group met in June to discuss the implications and possibilities for this project. They examined a variety of criminal behaviors and individual activities often demonstrated by terrorists and related them to normal conditions in an effort to uncover abnormal patterns that may need more intensive investigation.
In the coming months, NDAA and APPA will gather a curriculum design team that will utilize the information gathered by the advisory group to create a curriculum designed to train prosecutors and community corrections officers to understand and appreciate their respective roles in the fight against terrorism. The course will provide participants with the tools necessary to identify precursor crimes and behaviors and it will provide participants with techniques and strategies for sharing information with each other and federal agencies. In the coming year, NDAA will pilot test this curriculum in three locations.
The ultimate goal of this venture is to carry strategies for information gathering and sharing to a national level so that all prosecutors and community corrections agencies have a clear understanding of the important role they play in this battle. This project is the first step in providing prosecutors and community corrections agencies with the tools they need to join the fight against terrorism.
