A Terrorism Liaison Officer (TLO) is a public citizen in the United States of America who has been trained to report suspicious activity that may be encountered during the course of his or her normal occupation as part of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
'
War on Terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...
. Although the TLO program was designed prior to
September 11, 2001
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
, the 9/11 attacks on the United States were a catalyst for the program's implementation.
In 2002, the first pilot program for Terrorism Liaison Officers was launched in California. The program linked local law enforcement to the state's
fusion centers
In the United States, fusion centers are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Justice, and sta ...
and Office of Homeland Security.
By 2008, hundreds of people had been trained and dispatched in multiple states,
and by 2014, California alone had more than 14,000 TLOs.
While some of these individuals are members of local
law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules
Rule or ruling may refer to:
Education ...
agencies, others such as
paramedic
A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research.
Not all ambulance personnel are p ...
s, utility workers, and railroad employees have also been recruited into the program.
TLOs have been used to monitor criminal activity associated with Occupy Wall Street and
Black Lives Matter
Black Lives Matter (abbreviated BLM) is a decentralized political and social movement that seeks to highlight racism, discrimination, and racial inequality experienced by black people. Its primary concerns are incidents of police br ...
protests and activists.
See also
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Fusion center
*
InfraGard
InfraGard is a national non-profit organization serving as a public-private partnership between U.S. businesses and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The organization is an information sharing and analysis effort serving the interests, and comb ...
*
Operation TIPS Operation TIPS, where the last part is an acronym for the ''Terrorism Information and Prevention System'', was a domestic intelligence-gathering program designed by President George W. Bush to have United States citizens report suspicious activity. ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
The Terrorism Liaison Officer Information Network
Counterterrorism in the United States