Counterterrorism

For over 20 years the Police foundation has funded the stationing of Senior Intelligence Officers across the globe to gather firsthand intelligence on worldwide counterterror operations. These officers in the International/Domestic Liaison Program build contacts with local law enforcement agencies and provide in-depth analysis to their counterparts back home. In the event of a terrorist attack overseas, these detectives can be at the scene to provide timely information to the NYPD. In 2024, the NYPD announced the creation of two new posts in Tucson, Arizona and Bogotá, Colombia, which will help the NYPD address the myriad of issues coming across the US southern border, from guns, to drugs, to people, further expanding on the program’s focus on terrorism related threats, attacks, and transnational crime.

The core of the NYPD’s counterterrorism efforts is the work of the Intelligence Bureau whose analysts are the horsepower of the Department’s analytic engine. Analysts develop cases, generate intelligence and provide an ongoing assessment of the threat level in New York in daily briefings to the Police Commissioner.

The Police Foundation is funding extensive professional development training for these analysts so that they can continue to build on their expertise.

The Police Foundation also supports the NYPD’s Counterterrorism operations in the field in a much more visible way: we fund the purchase of highly-trained explosive detection canines. These dogs are able to detect airborne particles that are left behind in the wake of a person who is carrying explosives, enabling them to find that person or any devices they leave behind in large moving crowds. Unlike traditional bomb-sniffing dogs, which have to move through an area, sniffing point-to-point at the direction of their handler, these dogs are able to “scan” a crowd as it passes by and bring the handler to the suspect.