This document provides a Concept of Operations (CONOPS), or a top-level operational view of the Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI) which directly responds to the mandate to establish a unified process for the reporting, tracking, and assessing of SARs, as called for in the National Strategy; it includes chapters covering an introduction to NSI, NSI requirements, NSI business process overview, steps in the NSI Cycle, the ISE-SAR evaluation environment, managing the NSI, and appendices.
This Concept of Operations (CONOPS) document describes the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) Initiative, building on the information gathering regarding behaviors and incidents associated with crime, which law enforcement and other agencies have been doing for years, and establishes a process whereby SAR information can be shared to help detect and prevent terrorism-related criminal activity. This document provides a detailed overview and description of the National SAR Initiative (NSI), its operational requirements and civil liberties requirements; the NSI business process overview and steps in the NSI Cycle, including planning, gathering and processing, analysis and production, re-evaluation, and feedback; the ISE-SAR evaluation environment’s objectives, participating organizations, and functional capabilities; managing the NSI, including agency roles missions, and responsibilities, the ISE-SAR Steering Committee, and NSI performance management. Appendix A provides a mapping of NSIS requirements to NSI Cycle, and Appendix B is on the NSI as an integrated ISE shared space environment.