A burning need to know : the use of open source intelligence In the fire service

Abstract

Within the fire service began to realize they needed to share intelligence information with other government agencies in order to protect firefighters, and their community. At the federal level, the National Information Sharing Strategy recognized that first responders are critical to the prevention of terrorism and that an effective flow of intelligence information must be established between federal, state, local agencies. Yet, the fire service has little experience in the field of intelligence and much of the intelligence available may not be specific or useful to the fire service. The local fire department is faced with the task of analyzing what a particular piece of information means to that department. Only the local department knows its procedures and locale well enough to accomplish this critical task. This thesis seeks to assist local fire departments in building systems and training personnel to exploit open source intelligence for their unique needs. Using information gleaned from interviews with experienced intelligence people, the intelligence cycle is discussed including requirements, collection, analysis, and dissemination in light of the needs of the fire service.