Business Wire

August 31, 2010

OKLAHOMA CITY--The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) honored Joan T. McNamara today for her work in the creation and implementation of a suspicious activity reporting process within law enforcement. McNamara began this work while a Commander with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Now the program has been adopted with a national emphasis by the federal government and is called the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Initiative (NSI).

“It started as a simple concept to normalize the way line officers report suspicious activity,” said McNamara.

The MIPT Prevention Award recognizes individuals or departments within the law enforcement community who display a forward thinking approach to intelligence building and community policing.

“Ms. McNamara's forward thinking approach to the way police gather and report information is the missing piece to the intelligence puzzle and will no doubt make our cities safer,” said David Cid, MIPT's Executive Director. “The SAR program is redefining how police departments do business and ultimately ensuring the right information gets to the right people to stop not only terrorism but also criminal activity.”

MIPT established the Prevention Award in conjunction with its training course entitled InCOP, Information Collection on Patrol. InCOP is designed to improve the fundamental and essential skill of information collection for uniformed officers. InCOP concepts are reinforced by NSI.

In 2009, MIPT awarded the Oklahoma City Police Department with the first Prevention Award for its use of information gathering and sharing that prevented the sale of bombs in Oklahoma City.

MIPT is a U.S. Department of Homeland Security training partner serving the nation's 850,000 uniformed officers and law enforcement leadership. Our mission is to enhance the public safety through training, professional development and education.