Guidance for Building Communities of Trust

The Building communities of Trust (BcoT) initiative focuses on developing relationships of trust between law enforcement, state and major urban area fusion centers, and the communities they serve, particularly immigrant and minority communities, to address the challenges of crime control and prevention of terrorism. Being effective in these areas requires meaningful sharing of information and collaboration among law enforcement agencies, and between the community and police. The role of the community, together with law enforcement and fusion centers, is crucially important to safeguarding our society from real threats posed by violent extremists. First amendment protected freedoms such as religion, speech, and assembly should not and cannot be used as the sole grounds for launching investigative actions. Such actions undermine effective community-based counter-radicalization efforts and may even be viewed as an invitation by violent extremists to target society further. enough damage has already been done to minority communities who have been unfairly branded by the rhetoric or actions of a tiny minority of violent extremists. BCOT specifically seeks to explore the intersection of three critical partners-the community, local law enforcement, and fusion centers-in our nation's framework to improve information sharing and collaboration in order to protect our local communities. The knowledge about communities that comes from trust-based relationships among such partners is critical because it allows law enforcement officers and analysts to distinguish between innocent cultural behavior and that indicative of criminal activity.