Partnerships

Partnerships

In this complex, globalized, post 9/11 world, the operational partnerships of the FBI have never been more important to our efforts to protect our 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 impossible to separate the contributions of one agency—and one nation—from the next.

In Richmond, our major partnerships include:

• The Richmond Joint Terrorism Task Force brings together representatives of 40 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 out of Charlottesville and Roanoke.

• The Richmond Field Intelligence Group is a team of FBI agents and intelligence analysts who provide the full range of intelligence support on terrorism and criminal threats. This group combines with a multitude of partners from the U.S. Intelligence Community and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to support intelligence operations and analysis throughout the Commonwealth.

• The Richmond Division participates 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:
• Our Innocent Images National Initiative (IINI) is a multi-agency task force including the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, the Richmond Police Department, the Virginia State Police, and the FBI that combats crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. One of the most successful preventative measures has been posing as teenagers in online undercover operations to catch predators before they strike.
• In addition to this task force, the Richmond Division participates in a multi-agency initiative known as the Richmond Area Child Exploitation (RACE)Working Group. This working group combines information from the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office, the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, the Henrico Police Department, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Richmond Police Department, and the Virginia State Police to combat interstate and cyber exploitation of children.
• The Richmond InfraGard Chapter 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 Richmond Area Violent Enterprise (RAVE) Task Force combines FBI agents and detectives from the Richmond Police Department and the Virginia State Police to pool expertise and resources in targeting street gangs and violent criminals of all kinds.
• Our Central Virginia Task Force in Lynchburg—which includes the Amherst County Sherriff’s Office, the Campbell County Sheriff’s office, the Lynchburg Police Department, the Virginia State Police, and the FBI—works to round up violent gang members. This is an FBI-led Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) that seeks to combine local, state, and federal OCDETF resources to target criminal enterprises and drug trafficking.
• We also participate in the Combined Harrisonburg and Rockingham Gang Enforcement (CHARGE) Unit, operated by the Harrisonburg Police Department and the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office. CHARGE utilizes the resources of the FBI, the Harrisonburg Police Department, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office, and the Virginia State Police to combat crime associated with violent street gangs.

For a more complete list of partners, see local, state, and federal law enforcement links.