Police Intelligence Operations in USAREUR

Military Police, Sept, 2003 by Shawn T. Driscoll

Information exchange among the military intelligence detachment, the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) and the Office of the Provost Marshal (OPM) has always been a challenge. The terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 and another potential terrorist incident in Heidelberg, Germany, have made this exchange routine in U.S. army Europe (USAREUR).

In August 2002, the USAREUR OPM established a Police Intelligence Operations (PIO) cell within the Law Enforcement Branch. The purpose of the new office was to work with the USAREUR G2 (Intelligence) and 202d CID Group to "fuse" intelligence collected by the different agencies to detect, analyze, and prevent terrorist and criminal threats directed against USAREUR personnel and installations. Positive information flow between military intelligence, the CID, and the OPM was established and became routine during the criminal investigation that followed the arrest by German police of an Army and Air Force Exchange Service employee and her boyfriend, who were suspected of plotting to bomb the USAREUR headquarters.

The "fusion group," now known as the Force Protection Integration Group (FPIG), meets weekly to exchange information and concerns to support the USAREUR commanding general and the local commanders. It is a formal structure that supports intelligence planning, collection, analysis, and dissemination. These regular meetings have paved the way for daily dialogue concerning current cases revolving potential terrorist or other criminal activity.

The FPIG consists of two elements: the action officer group and the senior (colonels) group. The action officer group reports to the senior group. The FPIG meets every other week at the G2 (Intelligence) in Heidelberg. Initial meetings focused on addressing and resolving open investigations with counterterrorism or force protection implications. With the resolution of these investigations, the FPIG shifted to focus on the processes or key issues that could improve our force protection posture and information flow. Figure 1 depicts the information flow among the PIO-supported provost marshals and FPIG members.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The USAREUR PIO has established the information-sharing processes and improved law enforcement and military intelligence contacts and reporting in theater. The PIO has successfully--

*Reviewed and resolve--in coordination with the FPIG--approximately 12 criminal cases, each agency working with its "tools" to assist the case lead.

* Developed new reporting and tracking procedures that eliminate "back doors" to installation access (tracking identification card theft, checking employee backgrounds, registering vehicles, and authorizing installation passes). A sample format for an attempted entry form is on pages 18 and 19.

* Established the routine use of the Land Information Warfare Activity Information Dominance Center (IDC), a Department of the Army operations support activity assigned to the Intelligence and Security Command, and host-nation data files in conducting background checks. The IDC is an "all source" intelligence fusion center that provides access to and analysis of current information. The IDC works in concert with the Joint Analysis Center and the U.S. European Command.

* Developed procedures that will formalize the operational guidance to the field about the PIO/ FPIG function. Also developed a requirement to establish a supporting capability within each area support group and base support battalion.

* Reclassified a permanent civilian job (police intelligence analyst) in the OPM and hired a civilian contractor in support of PIO.

Police Intelligence Analyst Duties

* Serves as a criminal threat (CT) analyst responsible for researching and analyzing the threats to USAREUR interests and personnel posed by terrorist and criminal groups and organizations.

* Researches and analyzes events that may adversely impact operations and provides assessments to determine the terrorist threat levels, threat countermeasures, and force protection and crime prevention requirements.

Civilian Contractor Duties

* Processes, analyzes, and develops intelligence products using computer-aided collection, analysis, production, and dissemination automation.

* Conducts criminal analysis using Analyst's Notebook[R], a software program for analyzing a variety of data.

* Ensures connectivity between the PIO and all appropriate computer-based intelligence, including the Secure Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET) and other law enforcement and intelligence databases and networks.

Major Driscoll is assigned to the USAREUR Office of the Provost Marshal, Law Enforcement Branch, Heidelberg, Germany. He went there from a two-year assignment as the 6th Area Support Group provost marshal in Stuttgart, Germany.