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Independence, MO —
It’s an effort that likely isn’t widely known about in the Kansas City area, Independence Police Chief Tom Dailey said Monday night.
But the Kansas City Terrorism Early Warning Group serves all of the metropolitan region – including Independence – on both sides of the state line in the detection, prevention, deterrence and response to terrorist threats.
Overland Park (Kan.) Police Department Capt. Bob Kolenda, the group’s director since February 2009, explained the Kansas City Terrorism Early Warning Group on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the worst terror attack in U.S. history.
But the concept for a Terrorism Early Warning Group started years before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and on the other side of the country. The group was created in 1996 in Los Angeles as a countywide group – incorporating law enforcement, fire and public health departments and the FBI – to look at potential threats that could lead to terrorist attacks in Los Angeles County.
Following the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2002, other states and metropolitan areas were encouraged to form TEW groups, based on the success of the Los Angeles group.
In Kansas City, the group and its Interagency Analysis Center started in 2005, an effort that was spearheaded by Dailey, who was then a major in the Kansas City Police Department. The Interagency Analysis Center is funded by the Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Committee of the Mid-America Regional Council.
The Kansas City Terrorism Early Warning Group, like the 76 other such centers recognized by the Department of Homeland Security, functions as a fusion center. Fusion centers share information among federal and regional partners, including the sharing of homeland security and criminal-related information and intelligence, as well as collaborate to create a shared view of homeland and national security.
Fusion centers, Kolenda said, aren’t focused solely on terrorism and they aren’t owned by the federal government. They also aren’t a base for domestic spies, he said, as some citizens have accused them of being in the past.
The Kansas City TEW Group considers its work with this July’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Kauffman Stadium as a recent success story. That’s mostly due to the Interagency Analysis Center’s access to the Asset Protection and Response System.
This system allows public safety agencies to develop a pre-planned emergency response, using an all-hazards approach and collecting data, such as photographs, maps and contact information, and storing it on a dedicated, secure server at the Kansas City Police Department.
APRS was adopted statewide this year, and Independence is an active participant with 126 sites, including 48 schools, 22 governmental facilities and the Independence Events Center.
“The best part of this program is there is no cost to participants,” Kolenda said, “except for their time that it takes to enter the data and do the threat assessments.”
It’s an effort that likely isn’t widely known about in the Kansas City area, Independence Police Chief Tom Dailey said Monday night.
But the Kansas City Terrorism Early Warning Group serves all of the metropolitan region – including Independence – on both sides of the state line in the detection, prevention, deterrence and response to terrorist threats.
Overland Park (Kan.) Police Department Capt. Bob Kolenda, the group’s director since February 2009, explained the Kansas City Terrorism Early Warning Group on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the worst terror attack in U.S. history.
But the concept for a Terrorism Early Warning Group started years before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and on the other side of the country. The group was created in 1996 in Los Angeles as a countywide group – incorporating law enforcement, fire and public health departments and the FBI – to look at potential threats that could lead to terrorist attacks in Los Angeles County.
Following the creation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2002, other states and metropolitan areas were encouraged to form TEW groups, based on the success of the Los Angeles group.
In Kansas City, the group and its Interagency Analysis Center started in 2005, an effort that was spearheaded by Dailey, who was then a major in the Kansas City Police Department. The Interagency Analysis Center is funded by the Regional Homeland Security Coordinating Committee of the Mid-America Regional Council.
The Kansas City Terrorism Early Warning Group, like the 76 other such centers recognized by the Department of Homeland Security, functions as a fusion center. Fusion centers share information among federal and regional partners, including the sharing of homeland security and criminal-related information and intelligence, as well as collaborate to create a shared view of homeland and national security.
Fusion centers, Kolenda said, aren’t focused solely on terrorism and they aren’t owned by the federal government. They also aren’t a base for domestic spies, he said, as some citizens have accused them of being in the past.
The Kansas City TEW Group considers its work with this July’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Kauffman Stadium as a recent success story. That’s mostly due to the Interagency Analysis Center’s access to the Asset Protection and Response System.
This system allows public safety agencies to develop a pre-planned emergency response, using an all-hazards approach and collecting data, such as photographs, maps and contact information, and storing it on a dedicated, secure server at the Kansas City Police Department.
APRS was adopted statewide this year, and Independence is an active participant with 126 sites, including 48 schools, 22 governmental facilities and the Independence Events Center.
“The best part of this program is there is no cost to participants,” Kolenda said, “except for their time that it takes to enter the data and do the threat assessments.”
