News from
The Adjutant General's Department

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      December 22, 2004

No. 04-161

KANSAS THREAT INTEGRATION CENTER ESTABLISHED

Even though we live in an age of instant communications, there are times when information of vital interest is not always quickly filtered down through communications channels to law enforcement and other agencies in the community.

For this reason, the State of Kansas has created the Kansas Threat Integration Center (KSTIC), a three-person team, supported by the Kansas National Guard, whose job it is to see that information vital to community safety and security interests reaches the officer in the street.

"Working closely with Larry Welch, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and Col. Bill Seck, superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol, we have established the nation's first Threat Integration Center that is staffed on a full-time basis," said Maj. Gen. (KS) Tod Bunting, the adjutant general and director of Kansas Homeland Security.

The members of the team – a senior Kansas Army National Guard member; a senior special agent with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation; and an investigator with the Kansas Highway Patrol – are focusing on the development, gathering, analysis and dissemination of criminal and terrorist threat information in order to protect citizens, property and infrastructure in Kansas. KSTIC will also work to increase threat awareness among law enforcement and other government agencies and private infrastructure providers.

Lt. Col. Craig Beardsley, director of Military Support for the Kansas National Guard, said that their goal is to see that key information on criminal and terrorist threats is communicated to all levels in law enforcement and other security agencies, from the command level down to the individual officer.

"What we do is take open source and law enforcement sensitive information of a criminal or terrorist threat and disseminate it to the officer in the street," said Beardsley. "Those are the guys and gals who need to know what to look for and how to react. It's going to be, I believe, the street officer who stops the next terrorist attack."

Bunting said the Threat Integration Center will work closely not only with law enforcement, but with emergency management/homeland security officials and private sector agencies, as well.

"Everybody has points of contact," said Bunting. "Weekly we get more and more phone calls, establishing more contacts. Through those contacts, we are able to exchange information and form a united front against terrorist and criminal activities."

In addition to phone calls, information is spread through the Kansas Criminal Justice Information System web site, statewide teletype, bulletins, the Mid-State Organized Crime Information Center and other channels.

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