International Journal on Criminology Volume 4, Number 2, Winter 2016 | Page 15

Answering the Terrorism Challenge
capabilities; its cyber analysts could assess what was said on jihadi websites and
chat rooms whether in Arabic, Farsi, Turkic, or Pashto while watching and listening
for any references to New York City. These language capabilities were so deep that
Commissioner Kelly offered them up to the federal government to support its efforts
in these matters.
The greatest impact of the cyber work sprang from the integration of the
cyber analysts—which included uniformed and civilian personnel—with civilian
investigative analysts and investigative detectives. The cyber team—always working
in the unclassified world—would identify a person[s] of concern, the civilian
analysts would do follow-up “forensic analysis”*, and, if needed, an investigation
would begin involving the three (cyber, civilian, and detective) as a team. As early
as 2012 such teams led the Division to start assessing how the Syrian rebellion was
attracting and producing radicalized persons in the New York area.
-----Even before the Islamic State of Syria and Iraq [ISIS]
emerged, the Intelligence Division understood and was
acting on how the threat from Syria would come back to
New York City and the United States.
-----It had a long record of looking for “Lone Wolves”
as the homegrown threat began emerging in New York
years earlier in the aftermath of 9/11.
*Forensic analysis consisted of a process in which the civilian analyst was
expected to check all/all known and available unclassified databases to reconstruct
everything known by law enforcement about an individual of potential investigative
interest. The results of this forensic analysis would be an important input into
decisions on next steps, if any.
Creating An International Program
By fall 2002 the Division deployed a detective abroad, the first of what would
be 11 law enforcement organizations around the world. These included London’s
Scotland Yard, the Surete’ du Quebec, and France’s Paris Prefect among others.
With few exceptions these hand-picked Members of the Service (MOS) had native
fluency in the language of the country assigned. The assignees to the Madrid Police,
for example, spoke fluent Castilian Spanish; Intelligence Division assignees to the
Quebec Surete’ and the Paris Prefect were fluent in French; in the Middle East,
assignees spoke Arabic. Their typically six month training program, knowledge of
the NYPD, and police intelligence made them welcome additions to the agencies
that hosted them.
Their job was to represent the NYPD interest in comparing best
counterterrorism practices with counterparts abroad and assure that the “New York
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