The Federal Protective Service (FPS), which is the Uniformed Police Division of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is pleased to announce it has been Nominated in their Fifth Consecutive ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program.

The FPS is the federal law enforcement agency charged with protecting and delivering integrated law enforcement and security services to federally owned and leased buildings.

The FPS is responsible for policing, securing, and ensuring a safe environment in which federal agencies can conduct their business.

The Service does this by investigating threats posed against over 9,000 federal facilities nationwide.

The FPS’s work focuses directly on the interior security of the nation and the reduction of crimes and potential threats to federal facilities throughout the nation.

(To Protect, Prevent and Respond 20,000. That’s how many calls agents, inspectors, and uniformed officers with the Federal Protective Service respond to each year at facilities all over the nation. The training involved in facing these crimes, incidents, and threats is rigorous and appeals to the brave, who took the oath to protect, prevent and respond. IACP-TV visits the men and women at the FPS. Courtesy of WebsEdgeSociety and YouTube.)

Uniformed FPS officers/inspectors and special agents respond to calls for assistance, conduct investigations, and provide crime prevention tips, as well as assist in emergency planning by the departments and agencies occupying the buildings for which the agency is responsible.

In addition, all federal facilities under FPS control receive a thorough building security assessment on a recurring schedule.

During these assessments, representatives of all agencies in the facility are interviewed to gather information on the specific mission they perform within the facility, and intelligence and crime statistics for the area are reviewed, as are existing security countermeasures.

Based on the findings and working with the agencies housed in the facility, security countermeasures are added or adjusted, allowing for tailored security for each individual facility versus a one-size-fits-all approach.

The Challenge: Exponential Growth of Threats

Identifying precursors that will assist in the identification of individuals who may be a threat to protected persons and facilities has long been a focus of law enforcement and security personnel.

Agencies can become overwhelmed with threats (via email, voice, mail) and other inappropriate communications, and this tidal wave of rhetoric makes it difficult to prioritize responsive action.

Underscoring this trend, there were 692 mass shootings reported in the United States in 2021, and as of June 2022, there were 293 such events.

(ABC News’ Pierre Thomas reports on the spike in mass shootings in the U.S. LATEST COVERAGE OF GUN VIOLENCE IN THE U.S. Courtesy of Good Morning America and YouTube. Posted on Jun 6, 2022.)

With so many attacks occurring, it can become easy to believe that nothing can stop an individual determined to commit violence, even when the individual has vocalized that intent beforehand.

The ability to quickly analyze and react to threatening emails, voice, and mail messages when the sheer number of those messages is overwhelming – would provide a powerful tool to law enforcement.

The Innovative Approach

Understanding this challenge, the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service has partnered with the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory to determine if it is possible to use machine learning approaches to develop a solution for automated threat prioritization.

The result of this research is the creation of the Triage and Investigation for Expediated Response (TIER) tool.

TIER uses a machine learning approach to identify potential subjects of concern based on semantic cues uncovered from the analysis of communication transcripts.

TIER aims to identify warning behaviors and to flag communications received by the Federal Government through official government email, government phone systems, or official mail.

The Methodology

Moreover, TIER is solely focused on the rhetoric/communicated language received by FPS and excludes biographical or personal information related to the person communicating the message.

This distinction helps avoid concerns related to bias, targeting, or profiling.

Previous research suggests that violent offenders show signs of certain psychological warning behaviors that can be viewed as indicators of an increasing or accelerating risk of committing targeted violence.

Building on that premise, the tool seeks to identify eight attributes that help quantify threats:

1. High toxicity of language

2. Highly negative sentiment analysis

3. Pathway warning behavior (surveillance, personal information, or target research)

4. Fixation warning behavior (increasing perseverance (individual or place), increasing negative characterization, increasing angry, emotional overtones)

5. Identification warning behavior (warrior or militia mentality)

6. Energy burst warning behavior (increase in frequency or variety)

7. Leakage warning behavior (intent to do harm ‘leaked’ – can include research, planning, implementation warnings)

8. Last resort warning behavior (increasing distress and desperation)

When implemented, FPS will use TIER to triage threatening and inappropriate communications into areas/levels of concern.

Thus far, FPS and Argonne have collected over 1000 ratings of content (tweets, shooter journals, emails), capturing 7 of the 8 Threat Markers listed above, (including 29 potential indicators)

In addition, the content has been triaged into five levels of overall concern. TIER reduces false positives by modeling the attributes that create a concerning or threatening text rather than just modeling the patterns of known threatening text selections.

The model learns both the patterns in the text, as well as the patterns in the attributes and can report the results of both back to a user. The result of which is an explainable form of AI.

The process is similar to how image recognition methods can be improved for the task of recognizing a cat if the process can also recognize a cat’s ears, nose, feet, and tail. Recognizing the whole as the sum of its parts allows for greater confidence than the classification of the whole on its own.

The tool can give a rating for both the raw text, as well as the highest scoring attributes from the text (such as leakage warning or last resort warning behaviors).

The final output is explainable in the sense that the tool describes the cues that prompted the rating. The result is a more informed and informative AI tool.

Initial modeling results of actual FPS threatening emails have produced a sensitivity rating of 89% that an email will be flagged among those identified as very concerning or concerning (i.e. emails that warrant additional FPS attention), and a specificity of 94% that an email will be ignored given it should be ignored (i.e. the model correctly prioritized it as lower importance for FPS attention).

Argonne and FPS are confident that these ratings will continue to improve as additional markers are incorporated into the model, ultimately leading to innovative enhancement of integrated law enforcement and security services, to further protect federally owned and leased buildings.

The Federal Protective Service uses its security expertise and law enforcement authority to protect federal government facilities and safeguard the millions of employees and visitors who pass through them every day.

With a presence in every state and territory, its mission is to prevent, protect, respond to, and recover from acts of terrorism and other hazards threatening the federal government’s essential services, ensuring the continuity of the U.S. government.

FPS and ANL Recognized in 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program

American Security Today’s Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards is the preeminent U.S. Homeland Security Awards Program, and now in its Seventh Year, continues to recognize industry leaders of Physical and Border Security, Cybersecurity, Emergency Preparedness – Management and Response, Law Enforcement, First Responders, as well as federal, state and municipal government agencies in the acknowledgment of their outstanding efforts to Keep our Nation Secure.

Federal Protective Service in Collaboration with the Argonne National Laboratory

• Excellence in Homeland Security

  • • Modified Infrastructure Survey Tool (MIST)

• FPS uses the Modified Infrastructure Survey Tool (MIST), which was developed in partnership with the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory.

• Using MIST, FPS can survey a facility’s current security posture and make countermeasure recommendations.

• This multi-component application includes a survey tool, artificial intelligence-powered threat determination, a security asset tracking system, and a communication tool for stakeholders.

• The MIST Stakeholder Self-Service Tool (SST), is currently providing more than 300 Federal agencies with the documentation and data necessary to maintain ISC compliance at the national level, through a secure application gateway that allows security managers and agency leadership to view current and prior facility security assessments and countermeasure recommendations while documenting and ensuring their ISC compliance.

• *FPS and ANL were also Recognized in the Annual ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Programs in 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018, respectively.

Last Weeks to Enter Nominations in 2022 ‘ASTORS Homeland Security Awards

Final Nominations are being accepted for the 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards at https://americansecuritytoday.com/ast-awards/.

Comprehensive List of Categories Include:

Access Control/ Identification	Personal/Protective Equipment	Law Enforcement Counter Terrorism
Perimeter Barrier/ Deterrent System	Interagency Interdiction Operation	Cloud Computing/Storage Solution
Facial/IRIS Recognition	Body Worn Video Product	Cyber Security
Video Surveillance/VMS	Mobile Technology	Anti-Malware
Audio Analytics	Disaster Preparedness	ID Management
Thermal/Infrared Camera	Mass Notification System	Fire & Safety
Metal/Weapon Detection	Rescue Operations	Critical Infrastructure
License Plate Recognition	Detection Products	COVID Innovations
Workforce Management	Government Security Programs	And Many Others to Choose From!

Don’t see a Direct Hit for your Product, Agency or Organization?

Submit your category recommendation for consideration to Michael Madsen, AST Publisher, at: mmadsen@americansecuritytoday.com.

Homeland Security remains at the forefront of our national conversation as we experience an immigration crisis along our southern border, and crime rates that are dramatically higher than before the Pandemic across the United States.

These challenges have become a national priority with an influx of investments in innovative new technologies and systems.

The pinnacle of the Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program is the Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon, an exclusive, affordable, gourmet, full-course plated meal event, in the heart of New York City, held at the International Security Conference & Exposition (ISC East) since it’s inception in 2017.

And who better to address the aforementioned challenges, and initiatives to meet today’s threat landscape than Deputy Executive Assistant Commissioner (DEAC) Diane J. Sabatino of the Office of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the opening keynote speaker at the much-anticipated 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon, on Wednesday, November 16th, 2022.

As the DEAC of the Office of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Mrs. Sabatino leads more than 31,000 employees and oversees an annual operating budget of $6.5 billion.

Register for the 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Luncheon Today

(Hear a recent interview with Deputy Executive Assistant Commissioner (DEAC) Diane J. Sabatino held at Identity Week Europe on leveraging biometric comparison technology in U.S. air, maritime, and land border environments for the security of passengers, enhancing the customer experience and limiting the transmission of biological pathogens while respecting personal privacies and educating the public as the CBP further expands the implementation of biometrics to keep up with threats to the aviation and other border sectors. These new technological tools are there to automate administrative functions so that the most valuable component of the process, the officers, are able to focus on critical issues as they arise. Courtesy of evie kim sing and YouTube. Posted on Jul 13, 2022.)

Enter, American Security Today, the #1 publication and media platform in the Government Security and Homeland Security fields with a circulation of over 75,000 readers and many tens of thousands more visiting our AST Website at www.americansecuritytoday.com each month.

The continually evolving ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program will emphasize the trail of Accomplished Women in Leadership in 2022, as well as the Significance and Positive Impact of Advancing Diversity and Inclusion in our Next Generation of Government and Industry Leaders. #MentorshipMatters

So be on the lookout for Special Guests, Presenters, Book Opportunities, and Attendees at the 2022 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Presentation Luncheon in November of 2022 in NYC!