FY 2010 Citizen Corps Program - Strategy for Improving the Public’s Response to Suspicious Activity

For the 2010 Fiscal Year (FY), the Individual and Community Preparedness Division (ICPD) - under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Preparedness Directorate (NPD) - will award funds to The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) for the development of a toolkit and implementation plan to improve individual response to witnessing suspicious behavior. FEMA’s ICPD oversees Citizen Corps, FEMA’s grassroots strategy that brings together government and community leaders to involve citizens in all-hazards emergency preparedness and resilience. Citizen Corps strives to harness the power of every individual through education, training, a volunteer service to make communities safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to threats of threats of terrorism, crime, public health issues, and disasters of all kinds. As a means of building law enforcement and community collaboration, Citizen Corps works closely with numerous partner organizations devoted to crime awareness and response, including the Department of Justice, the International Association of Chiefs of Police the Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) program, the National Sheriffs’ Association and the Neighborhood Watch program. The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) will utilize the best practices and lessons learned from research that was collected and analyzed during the 2009 Citizen Corps Program cooperative agreement and will develop a resource guide and checklist for state and local officials, community organizations and citizens, so they may become more involved in SAR.