Integrated Policing in Action

High levels of collaboration continue one year post-9/11

BY JODY BRIAN

In September, the world stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Americans in a collective remembrance of the terrorist attacks that occurred one year ago in the United States.

For many, the anniversary was a time for reflection on both a personal and professional level. It was a time to look back on the progress made since the morning of September 11, 2001, when the first hijacked airplane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center.

It was also a time for the RCMP to renew its commitment to continue collaborative anti- terrorism efforts. The short- and long-term response to the terrorist attacks were characterized by unprecedented levels of collaboration within and beyond the RCMP. More than ever before, the vision of integrated policing was put into action.

For many, the anniversary was a time for reflection on both a personal and professional level.

From the very first hours, Canadians banded together to do what they could to help. Airports from Vancouver to Newfoundland accepted some 225 diverted planes carrying more than 35,000 passengers. Officers from the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (CCRA), Citizenship and Immigration (CIC) and the RCMP worked together around the clock with everyday citizens to respond to the needs of the stranded travelers.

The integration that occurred in the first few hours across departments, across jurisdictions and across borders foreshadowed the focus of RCMP activities this past year.

At home

The RCMP’s response to 9/11 was called “Project Shock”. It was one of the RCMP’s first investigative and enforcement initiatives that was national in scope, with implications in one form or another in all divisions across the country.

“Prior to September 11, the national security program within the RCMP was, for the most part, isolated from mainstream law enforcement,” says Supt Wayne Pilgrim, the officer in charge of the National Security Investigations Branch, which monitored and co-ordinated Project Shock.

“After September 11, many of the tangible and intangible barriers were taken down,” he states. “This has facilitated partnership-building internally and externally.”

Under Project Shock, the RCMP worked closely with other government departments in the fight against terrorism—the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, CCRA, the Department of Justice, Transport Canada, CIC, the Department of National Defence, and the Privy Council Office, among others.

This collaboration was underscored in the December 2001 Federal Budget, which funded a number of horizontal initiatives, including lawful access, emergency preparedness, marine security, border infrastructure, and chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) technology.

The RCMP received $576 million under this budget, which will be spread over six years. This included the $59 million the RCMP was allocated in October 2001 to deal immediately with threats to national security.

The funding from the December 2001 budget was earmarked for 17 specific national security projects and programs. Many of these initiatives leverage the expertise and resources of other federal government departments.

One such initiative was the creation of Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSETs), comprised of representatives from across the RCMP and partner agencies at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.

“At the heart of INSETs is the philosophy that they are intelligence-led and integrated,” Pilgrim says. “We want to expand this concept to national security investigation areas across the country, so no matter where you are, the integration philosophy is being applied.”

This philosophy has already taken root in the form of secondments within and between federal departments and agencies involved in national security. For instance, the Criminal Intelligence Directorate has seconded an inspector-level employee from CSIS to head up the Threat Assessment Section within the National Security Investigations Branch. In turn, the RCMP has provided an inspector to the CSIS management team. Similar exchanges exist with Transport Canada and the Canadian Security Establishment.

After September 11, the RCMP also created the Financial Intelligence Task Force, which has now expanded and evolved to become the Financial Intelligence Branch. This group tracks the criminal misuse of Canadian financial systems that may facilitate terrorist acts here and in other countries around the world.

The task force works in close co-operation with the new Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) to analyze terrorist funding information and prosecute those individuals or groups.

“By better integrating the police with members of the financial community, which include banks, credit unions, life insurance companies, real estate brokers and accountants, and through information sharing, it will be more difficult for terrorists to hide from the law,” D/Commr Garry Loeppky recently stated at a conference held by the Competition Bureau of Canada.

Beyond cross-departmental co-operation, Commr Zaccardelli has stepped up integration among police services across the country. Immediately after 9/11, he initiated regular teleconference calls with Chiefs of Police and these continue today on a bi-weekly basis or as needed to respond to specific threats. “This initiative is another excellent example of how cross-jurisdictional collaboration is not just beneficial but is indeed necessary when dealing with situations involving national security...in times of peace as well as in times of crisis,” the commissioner says.

With the United States

RCMP assistance to the United States began with crisis management in the hours following the terrorist attacks. It has grown and expanded from that point, with police services and government agencies on both sides of the border working together to keep Canadians and Americans safe from further terrorist threats.

One such undertaking was the Smart Border Declaration, signed by Deputy Prime Minister John Manley and US Homeland Security Advisor Tom Ridge. This declaration and its 30-point Smart Border Action Plan are designed to keep the longest, non-militarized border in the world open to legitimate trade and travel, but closed to crime.

The Smart Border Action Plan brings together the RCMP and other Canadian federal government departments and agencies with counterparts in the United States through such initiatives as Integrated Border and Marine Enforcement Teams (IBETs and IMETs), joint enforcement co-ordination, the freezing of terrorist assets, enhancing the inter-operability of fingerprint technology, and better integrating our threat assessment and intelligence-sharing capabilities.

The plan also commits to enhanced collaboration through the Cross-Border Crime Forum, which was created in 1997. Meetings bring together senior Canadian law enforcement and justice officials with our counterparts in the United States, including the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, US Border Patrol, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and US Customs.

Around the World

And, of course, an issue like anti-terrorism that is international in scope requires collaboration beyond our borders, with our partners in security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies around the world.

The RCMP is fortunate to have a long and prosperous history of international co-operation with like-minded law enforcement agencies. Post-9/11, the RCMP strengthened partnerships with French, British, German and Danish authorities—among others—in the global effort to detect and disrupt terrorist entities.

The commissioner, speaking at a recent Interpol conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon, reinforced the need for more and better collaboration with our partners at home and abroad.

“September 11 was a defining moment in this new world environment,” he stated. “More than any event before or since, it proved that a collaborative approach is the only way to detect, deter and destabilize global criminal entities.

“There is no way around it,” he added. “We need an approach as flexible, integrated and collaborative as the groups we are targeting if we wish to be successful in fighting the criminal activity of the twenty-first century."

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2002 issue of the Pony Express , the RCMP's national internal magazine.

SEE also...

• BETWEEN THE BORDERS
  How the RCMP is fighting to keep Canada’s borders safe from terrorist threat