Our 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 Atlanta, our major partnerships include:

• The Atlanta Joint Terrorism Task Force brings together representatives of numerous and varied local, state, and other 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.
• The Atlanta Field Intelligence Group is a team of FBI agents and analysts who provide a full range of intelligence support on terrorism and criminal threats.
• The Innocent Images Initiative, a component of the FBI's cyber crimes program, is an intelligence-driven, proactive, multi-agency investigative effort to combat the proliferation of child pornography and child sexual exploitation. Innocent Images works to reduce the vulnerability of children to acts of sexual exploitation and abuse that are facilitated through the use of computers; to identify and rescue child victims; and to investigate and prosecute sexual predators who use the Internet and other online services to sexually exploit children for personal or financial gain.
• Our InfraGard Chapter in Atlanta is the local arm of a national information-sharing alliance between private industry, academia, and government focused on protecting critical national infrastructures in both the online and offline worlds.
• We also lead or take part in several major partnerships targeting violent crime:
• Our Atlanta Metropolitan Major Offender Task Force combines officers from local law enforcement agencies with our special agents to pool expertise and resources to proactively identify, locate, and apprehend violent criminals, including wanted fugitives.
• We have several Safe Streets Task Forces throughout Georgia—including in Augusta, Dalton, Gainesville, and Valdosta—that combine detectives from local area law enforcement agencies to proactively identify, disrupt, and dismantle existing and emerging organized gangs and criminal enterprises within their respective areas.
• The Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation (MATCH) Task Force was established to address the growing problem of children forced into prostitution in the Atlanta area. The task force works with the Atlanta Police Department and other select departments to identify, investigate, and prosecute organized child prostitution enterprises.
• The David Wilhem OCDETF Strike Force, inaugurated in 2007, brings together the resources and strengths of numerous federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies for complex drug investigations targeting the highest level members of international drug cartels operating in the metro Atlanta area as well as throughout the United States. Because the metro area has become one of the country’s primary hubs for the transportation and distribution of cocaine and methamphetamine, the strike force focuses not only on the identification and dismantlement of the Atlanta components of these cartels but also on the arrest and extradition of the cartel leadership and the forfeiture of their assets and profits.