"Whether a plan for a terrorist attack is homegrown or originates overseas, important knowledge that may forewarn of a future attack may be derived from information gathered by State, local, and tribal government personnel in the course of routine law enforcement and other activities." - National Strategy for Information Sharing, October 2007

As called for in the National Strategy for Information Sharing (Strategy), the PM-ISE is supporting efforts to establish a nationwide capacity for gathering, documenting, processing, analyzing and sharing terrorism related suspicious activities reports-or Suspicious Activities Reports (SARs) - in a manner that rigorously protects the privacy and civil liberties of Americans.

The Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI) is an outgrowth of a number of separate but related activities over the last several years that respond directly to the mandate to establish a "unified process for reporting, tracking, and accessing [SARs]," in a manner that rigorously protects the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, as called for in the National Strategy for Information Sharing (NSIS). The NSI process is a cycle of 12 interrelated operational activities, which address the requirements outlined in the NSIS. The long term goal is that most Federal, State, local, and tribal law enforcement organizations will participate in a standardized, integrated approach to gathering, documenting, processing, analyzing, and sharing information about suspicious activity that is potentially terrorism-related. In addition to government agencies, private sector organizations responsible for Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources (CI/KR) and foreign partners are also potential sources for terrorism-related SARs.

The NSI is not a single monolithic program, but is rather a coordinated effort that leverages and integrates all SAR-related activities into a unified nationwide SAR capability. The NSI strategy is to develop, evaluate, and implement common processes and policies for gathering, documenting, processing, analyzing, and sharing information about terrorism-related suspicious activities. The initiative will ensure that NSI participants at all levels of government adopt consistent policies and procedures that foster broader sharing of terrorism-related SARs, also known as ISE-SARs, while ensuring that privacy and civil liberties are adequately protected in accordance with Federal, State, and local laws and regulations.

To fully realize the purpose of the Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI) in establishing a unified approach at all levels of government to gather, document, process, analyze, and share information about terrorism-related suspicious activities, an NSI Program Management Office (PMO) has been created. As directed by the White House, the NSI PMO will coordinate the implementation of the NSI through the cooperative efforts of the state and urban area fusion centers and federal partners by adopting and deploying standard SAR business processes, policies, and technologies.

The goal of the PMO is to facilitate the implementation of the NSI across all levels of government, and assist participating agencies to adopt compatible processes, policies, and standards that foster broader sharing of SARs, while ensuring that privacy and civil liberties are protected in accordance with local, state, and federal laws and regulations. For more information on the PMO, please visit http://nsi.ncirc.gov/default.aspx.

The NSI Concept of Operations (CONOPS) presents a top-level operational view of the NSI to participants and other interested readers. Specifically, the CONOPS provides a common understanding of the NSI cycle so that implementation activities can be planned, executed, and measured. In addition it defines the requirements that drive the NSI process and associated implementation activities; describes the overall process and multiple ISE-SAR-related activities in sufficient detail to ensure that these activities adhere to standard approaches and that all embody adequate protections for privacy and civil liberties; clarifies the role of the ISE-SAR Evaluation Environment as a microcosm of the broader NSI-a smaller-scale implementation test-bed; describes the roles, missions, and responsibilities of NSI participating agencies and the top-level NSI governance structure; and serves as the foundation for other NSI baseline documents, such as the ISE-SAR Segment Architecture, that provide additional details on specific aspects of the NSI.

The PM-ISE is partnering with Federal, State and local officials to institute a standardized approach to gathering, documenting, processing, analyzing and sharing terrorism related suspicious activities reports. This effort is known as the ISE-SAR Evaluation Environment (EE), and is designed to assess the value of the ISE-SAR process in advancing counterterrorism goals. The project currently envisions twelve ISE-SAR EE sites, located at State and major urban area fusion centers and their source agency law enforcement partners, which will be implemented and activated incrementally as each site is provided the necessary technology, technical assistance, and training. For further information about the ISE-SAR EE, please see FACT SHEET: Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative.

This ISE-SAR EE Segment Architecture is the next level of technical detail from the NSI CONOPS. It provides a logical arrangement of business and functional drivers, information exchange requirements, outcomes and constraints for building the operational ISE-SAR EE. This Segment Architecture, also derived from ISE Architecture program documentation, identifies enabling services required for operational implementation and use. This Segment Architecture will assist program managers, Chief Architects, and systems designers and implementers as they determine the programmatic and solution strategies that support the business case for the ISE-SAR EE.

The NSIS advocates that "with proper planning we can both enhance privacy protections and increase information sharing." To that end, an initial examination of the privacy and civil liberties ramifications of the ISE-SAR Functional Standard and Evaluation Environment was conducted and recommendations were made regarding the policies and safeguards that should be implemented. The Initial Privacy and Civil Liberties Analysis of the Information Sharing Environment - Suspicious Activities Reporting (ISE-SAR) Functional Standard and Evaluation Environment (September 2008, Version 1), was prepared by the PM-ISE, in consultation with the Civil Liberties and Privacy Office of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties of the Department of Justice, and the Legal Issues Working Group of the ISE Privacy Guidelines Committee. For further information about the Initial ISE-SAR Privacy and Civil Liberties Analysis, please see FACT SHEET: Initial Privacy and Civil Liberties Analysis

This is an interim privacy and civil liberties analysis that will be updated as more information is obtained during the ISE-SAR EE initiative, including lessons learned from participants and feedback received from privacy and civil liberties advocates and other interested parties.