Thomas J. O’Reilly, COP Executive Policy Advisor

On April 9, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security Nationwide Suspicious Activity Initiative Program (NSI), the International Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Analysts, and the Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Units awarded the first NSI Tom O’Reilly Excellence in Training Award to the New Jersey State Police (NJSP).  The NJSP has trained over 30,000 security guards on precursor behaviors that could indicate potential acts of terrorism and other acts of violence.

O’Reilly, COP Executive Policy Advisor, commented that the backbone of the NSI is training people on suspicious behaviors and how to report them.  O’Reilly stated, “We learned quickly that in addition to law enforcement there were many other people who were charged with protecting critical infrastructure, soft targets, and other points of vulnerability.  This is when we expanded the training to focus on fire, EMTs, hotel workers and many other folks who can serve as the eyes and ears, and if the ‘see something say something’ and report to the SAR.”  He went on to commend the New Jersey State Police for requiring NSI training as part of the licensing of security guards because private security is one of the largest groups that can help play a critical role in acting as observers of potential precursor behaviors that can alert us to potential terrorist attacks.