The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s campaign aims to raise public awareness of the indicators of terrorism and terrorism-related crime activity.
“This program came about as a result of our want and need to partner with the community at a deeper level and encourage them to report any type of suspicious activity,” Newton Police Chief Rob Burdess said.
The main focus of the national campaign is terrorist and terrorist activity, but Burdess sees the local program as a way to empower citizens to report any suspicious activity regardless of the severity.
“We are trying to get it out there that we really want people to give us a call,” Burdess said.
Jasper County Sheriff John Halferty agreed that many times the everyday partners in the community are better able to tell officers if something is out of sort, suspicious or not right.
“What we found in the past, there are times that these same citizens don’t realize that things haven’t been reported. They may just assume or think things are normal and that we know about it,” Halferty said.
Halferty said he encourages the public to call in and report everyday things that may not, at first glance, seem important. He would much rather have multiple calls about an activity that may not be anything as opposed to no call about something officers need to know.
After a crime incident occurs neighbors and witnesses often advise police about suspicious behavior or activity at a residence or with a specific person in the days prior to the event, but they don’t want to get involved and don’t want to bother the police, Burdess said. Those suspicious acts, if reported, could have a huge impact on saving lives or preventing a crime.
“We’ll be successful because somebody will call something in and it will be just the piece we need to be able to do something about it,” Burdess said.
See Something, Say Something is also seen as a preventative measure to help catch suspicious activity before it becomes a large criminal activity.
“In a lot of these major incidents that hear about, most recently Orlando, at some point you hear that someone says we knew or this person made a statement that they may do that,” Halferty said. “It seems like we react to so many things. If we can prevent those things with this program, it is just going to take one to make this program a success.”
If the information does have terrorist implications, it is sent to the Iowa Department of Public Safety who then forwards it on to federal authorities.
“It is really a partnership. The State of Iowa is involved in this program and this is just our way of being involved on the local level and bringing it out to our communities,” Burdess said.
If anyone in the public has information to share with authorities they are encouraged to call 911.
Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com
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©2016 the Newton Daily News (Newton, Iowa)
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