Secretary Napolitano's Visit to Denver

Denver – Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today traveled to Denver to meet with state and major urban area fusion center leaders and deliver remarks at the National Fusion Center Conference, where she announced the expansion of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign to the state of Colorado.

"Homeland security begins with hometown security, and our national network of fusion centers plays a critical role in improving our collective ability to protect our communities," said Secretary Napolitano. "Ensuring our security is a shared responsibility that requires every individual to be alert and to recognize and report suspicious behavior."

During her remarks to more than 1,000 fusion center directors, homeland security advisors, law enforcement and intelligence officials, Secretary Napolitano reiterated the Department's strong support for fusion centers—highlighting the deployment of 70 experienced DHS intelligence officers to work side by side with federal, state and local fusion center personnel nationwide to assess threats and share information.

Secretary Napolitano also discussed the importance of fusion centers to initiatives such as the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative—an administration effort to train state and local law enforcement to recognize behaviors and indicators related to terrorism, crime and other threats; standardize how those observations are documented and analyzed; and expand and enhance the sharing of those reports with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and DHS.

In addition, Secretary Napolitano announced the statewide expansion of DHS' "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign to Colorado, and launched DHS' new "If You See Something, Say Something ™" public awareness video, available here. The "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign and video are based on a simple and effective program to engage the public to identify and report indicators of terrorism, crime and other threats to the proper transportation and law enforcement authorities.

Over the past nine months, DHS has worked with its federal, state, local and private sector partners to expand the "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign as well as the Nationwide SAR Initiative to communities throughout the country.

Yesterday, Secretary Napolitano joined Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) officials to launch a new partnership with the MBTA on the "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign.