Suspicious Activity Reporting

Suspicious Activity Reporting and Its Growing Prominence in Interdicting Criminal, Terrorist Plots.

Prior to 9/11, police agencies generally referred to information coming in from the public as “Tips.” Often, these came from “800” tip lines, where citizens could call and leave information. Activities that might have some indication of criminal actions or that were observed by police officers also were referred to as Tips. Conversely, when police were investigating a specific crime and citizens reported information relative to that crime, then that was generally called lead information or “Leads.” Tips and Leads were considered distinct categories of information in the day-to-day work of law enforcement professionals. Tips and Leads were handled by separate systems. Generally, there were no computerized systems whatsoever for tracking them. That all changed with 9/11. Thousands of citizens reporting Tips and Leads flooded police departments across the country. The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) own Rapid Start Lead Management program for terrorism-related tips was inundated with phone calls, e-mails and letters from the public. I remember my own agency in New Jersey received several thousand calls from citizens over the course of several days immediately following the World Trade Center collapse.