Partnerships

Partnerships

In this complex, globalized, post 9/11 world, our operational partnerships have never been more important to our efforts to protect your communities.

Today, we work with colleagues at every level of government—local, state, federal, even international—across the law enforcement, intelligence, and first responder communities. We lead and take part in multi-agency task forces, intelligence groups and fusion centers, and public and private sector alliances. A number of our partners literally sit shoulder-to-shoulder with us in FBI space, just as we share our agents and analysts with other agencies. We work closely on joint investigations—sometimes taking the lead, sometimes taking a back seat to others, sometimes contributing equally among many agencies. Our work with our colleagues, in fact, is so intertwined today that it’s often nearly impossible to separate the contributions of one agency—and one nation—from the next.

In Kansas City, our major partnerships include:

• The Kansas City Joint Terrorism Task Force brings together 47 representatives from 33 local, state, and federal agencies to run down any and all terrorism leads, develop and investigate cases, provide support for special events, and proactively identify threats that may impact the area and the nation. We also have satellite Joint Terrorism Task Forces working from each resident agency.
• The Kansas City Field Intelligence Group—a team of FBI agents, analysts, linguists, and other professional support staff—provides a full range of intelligence support on terrorism, cyber, and criminal threats. This group partners with state and local fusion centers, all levels of law enforcement, and intelligence agencies to support intelligence and law enforcement missions in Kansas and the western portion of Missouri.
• We also participate in the FBI Counterintelligence Strategic Partnerships Program, a national partnership between private industry, academia, government agencies, the FBI, and its counterintelligence community partners to identify and protect projects of great importance to the U.S. government.
• To battle cyber crime, we have a number of key partnerships:
• The Kansas City Cyber Crime Task Force (CCTF) investigates unauthorized access (hacking), denial-of-service attacks, Internet fraud schemes, malicious code (viruses and worms), copyright violations, and Internet crimes against children. Besides our agents and analysts, the CCTF is composed of law enforcement officers from state and local agencies, including the Independence and Kansas City Police Departments in Missouri and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Overland Park Police Department in Kansas.
• The Heart of America Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory (RCFL) is a one-stop, full-service forensics laboratory and training center devoted to the examination of digital evidence in support of terrorism and criminal investigations—such as online child pornography and other Internet crime, violent crime, theft or destruction of intellectual property, and fraud. The laboratory brings together 22 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, strengthening and improving the local quality and computer forensics capacity. Learn more about computer forensics, the national RCFL program, participating agencies, and future developments at the HARCFL website.
• The FBI and the private sector partner through InfraGard, an FBI-established association of businesses, academic institutions, and state and local law enforcement agencies that shares intelligence to help prevent hostile acts against the U.S. and its critical infrastructure. InfraGard focuses on critical industry sectors and addresses both physical and cyber security. Chapters are geographically linked with FBI field office territories. For more information, visit the website of the Kansas City Chapter of InfraGard.
• We also lead or take part in several major partnerships targeting violent crime:
• Our Kansas City Violent Crimes Task Force combines FBI agents, police officers, and deputies from Kansas and Missouri, including the Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas Police Departments and the Johnson County, Kansas Sheriff’s Department.
• Our Kansas City Metropolitan Gang Task Force combines our agents with detectives from Kansas and Missouri police departments and the Missouri Sheriff’s Department deputies, pooling expertise and resources to target the most violent street gangs.