Validation of the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative

This executive summary details the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) initiative to compare pre-incident activities of terrorists and violent criminal extremists in the United States to the 16 suspicious activity reporting (SAR) behavioral indicators that are outlined in the Information Sharing Environment (ISE) SAR Functional Standard as being observed behaviors reasonably indicative of preoperational planning related to terrorism or other criminal activity. The START Study verifies the utility of the Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI), which provides law enforcement and homeland security agencies with a uniform method for gathering and reporting raw tips, leads, and reports of suspicious activity.