Criminal intelligence

The Phoenix Fire Regional Dispatch Center in the Metro-Phoenix Automatic Aid System dispatches fire resources for 24 communities an average of 250,000 calls per year. These calls represent 250,000 opportunities to see something suspicious and to disrupt a potential domestic or international terrorist plot. Firefighters all should have some basic awareness training to supplement their instincts.

It isn't necessary for each firefighter to know or understand the complicated and sometimes convoluted layers of law enforcement to report a suspicious event. A single radio or phone call to a TLO provides critical information to the correct law enforcement agency while maintaining a definitive disconnect between the firefighters and the suspected activity.

Whenever legally possible, TLOs distribute important intelligence to the appropriate fire department personnel. One example is an FBI intelligence document that showed a Mag-Lite flashlight that had been converted to a handgun. This flashlight has the ability to fire either a .410-shotgun or .38-caliber round when the button is pressed. It's not hard to imagine a firefighter picking up one of these flashlights in the dark to help while another firefighter/paramedic starts an IV. These types of documents are created and distributed as Officer Safety Bulletins, which are classified “Law Enforcement Sensitive” but reclassified by the ACTIC as “Public Safety Sensitive” so it may be shared with all first responders.

Building intelligence

Firefighters are essential assets in collecting site information and provide a unique perspective because of their ability to preplan a building's destruction.

TLOs perform official, scheduled threat and vulnerability assessments of critical infrastructures and key assets statewide, including water treatment plants, electric generation plants and substations, critical government buildings, hazmat and military defense contractors and manufacturers, and any other facility that meets the program definition. In the United States, 85% of the critical infrastructure is privately owned, and these private owners have no responsibility to share their trade secrets or weaknesses with anyone, including the ACTIC. This is where TLOs are such a valuable asset. As sworn firefighters or law enforcement officers, each TLO is assigned a specific list of critical sites and becomes the point of contact to and from each site. The assigned TLO maintains ongoing dialogue with the site managing entity and develops a personal relationship built on trust.