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PER 281 Homeland

Security Terrorism

Prevention Certificate for

Law Enforcement

Course Design Document May, 2011

PER 281 Homeland Security Terrorism Prevention Course Design Document (CDD) Certificate for Law Enforcement

May, 2011 Version 1

Course Description

Overview

The Terrorism Prevention Certificate Course builds community resiliency to catastrophe through critical reflection on prevention principles and deliberative applications for law enforcement professionals.

The introductory and advanced exercises, supported by optional engagement in the Institute for Preventive Strategies prevention-related Communities of Practice, briefs, and activities, are considered a single certificate program with three overarching goals.

1. To develop capacity in preventing terrorism for law enforcement professionals and the entire whole community.

2. To demonstrate coherence with a common standard of practice in prevention of terrorism.

3. To ensure that every jurisdiction has a basic ability to recognize crucial links between prevention, response, and recovery.

Scope

The Terrorism Prevention Certificate Course builds community resiliency to catastrophe through critical reflection on prevention principles and deliberative applications for law enforcement professionals while working with the whole community.

Programmatic Goals

The introductory and advanced exercises, supported by optional engagement in the Institute for Preventive Strategies prevention-related Communities of Practice, briefs, and activities, are considered a single certificate program with three overarching goals.

1. To develop capacity in preventing terrorism.

2. To demonstrate coherence with a common standard of practice in prevention of terrorism.

3. To ensure that every jurisdiction has a basic ability to recognize crucial links between prevention, response, and recovery.

Target Audience

This course was designed to benefit law enforcement professionals, as they have a very important role to play in protecting critical infrastructure through terrorism prevention. By the nature of their jobs, law enforcement professionals have a duty to promote public safety for the whole community. As such, training law enforcement professionals on effective terrorism


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prevention skills is an effective measure towards promoting public safety for the whole community.

Prerequisites

In order to enroll in this course students must:

1) Be a U.S. citizen.

2) Students must be registered to the Institute for Preventive Strategies website.

And either:

A) Be currently employed in law enforcement or an appropriate homeland security field.

B) Be enrolled in a college course that is related to law enforcement or another homeland security related.

Course Length

The course is modular and can be completed in phases. Attached in the course agenda is a suggested course flow with time requirements. Overall, the student should expect to dedicate about 7-8 hours to completing the course. This 7-8 hour estimate is dependent upon the pace at which the student moves through the course.

Required Materials/Facilities

Computers for each participant Broadband Internet Access Flash 8 or later Acrobat Reader Internet Explorer 7.0 or later Sound system

Testing/Certification

DHS courses require each student to participate in a course pre-test in which there is no pass/fail; this is merely an experiential assessment tool. Each student is required to participate in and pass a course post-test with a score of 70% or better to meet the course completion requirements. Each student who meets all of the course completion requirements will receive a DHS Course Certificate of Completion.

Reference List

Introductory Exercise References: Reference List Web Documents:


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Gilmore Commission Report (pages 1-40) http://www.rand.org/nsrd/terrpanel/volume_v/volume_v.pdf National Strategy for Homeland Security, White House, October 2007 http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeland/nshs/2007/index.html The 9/11 Commission Report http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf Countering Terrorism: Dimensions of Preparedness, Howitt and Pangi *chapter excerpt* http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/1877/countering_terrorism.html Books: Thinking Strategically, Dixit and Nalebuff Imperial Hubris, Anonymous America the Vulnerable, Stephen Flynn The Age of Sacred Terror, Benjamin and Simon The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell

COLLABORATION

Web Documents:

Governing by Network, Goldsmith and Eggers

*abstract only* http://governing.com/books/netwint.htm

Books, articles:

Leading Change, John P. Kotter,

Coleman’s Collaboration Equation

INFORMATION SHARING

Web Documents:

Markle Foundation Reports

http://www.markletaskforce.org/

Report on the US Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments

On Iraq, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, July 2004.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/2004_rpt/iraq-wmdintell_toc.htm

Books, articles:

Gathering Collective Intelligence, Sylvie Blanco

THREAT IDENTIFICATION

Web Documents:

Networks and Netwars, Arquilla and Ronfeldt

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1382/

A Conceptual Framework for Analyzing Terrorist Groups, Cordes, Jenkins,

http://www.rand.org/nsrd/terrpanel/volume_v/volume_v.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeland/nshs/2007/index.html

http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report.pdf

http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/publication/1877/countering_terrorism.html

http://governing.com/books/netwint.htm

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/2004_rpt/iraq-wmdintell_toc.htm


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Kellen, et al http://www.rand.org/publications/R/R3151/

RISK MANAGEMENT

Web Documents:

Probabilistic Modeling of Terrorist Threats, Pate-Cornell

http://www.mors.org/awards/mor/2003.pdf

Books, articles:

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk, Bernstein

Predictable Surprises, Bazerman and Watkins

―Managing Intelligence in Multi-Jurisdiction Multi-task Law Enforcement

Environments,‖ Schwendiman

INTERVENTION

Web Documents:

Deterrence and Influence in Counterterrorism (Rand, 2002)

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1619/MR1619.pdf

Cycle of Preparedness, Pelfrey

http://www.bepress.com/jhsem/vol2/iss1/5/

Inconsistencies in the Classification of Preventive Interventions

Paul Froom and Jochanan Benbassat, Preventive Medicine 31, 153–158

(2000).

*abstract only*

http://www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/pubmed/10938216?dopt=abstract

Problem-Oriented Policing, Deterrence, and Youth Violence: An evaluation of Boston’s Operation Ceasefire; Braga, Kennedy, Waring, and Piehl, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Vol. 38, No.3, August 2001, 195-225

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/criminaljustice/publications/bgp_evaluation.pdf

Evaluation Strategy

Assuming the role of a law enforcement officer, students are faced with a potential terrorist attack and required to make realistic choices that carry future consequences on possible outcomes regarding developing a collaboration network, prioritizing information sharing, recognizing threats, managing risk, and deciding to intervene. Students start with 30 points that represent resources used for preventing the attack. Points are awarded or taken away depending on the choices made. If too many poor decisions are made the point total drops

http://www.ncbi.nim.nih.gov/pubmed/10938216?dopt=abstract

http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/criminaljustice/publications/bgp_evaluation.pdf


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below zero the terrorists win and the game is over. The highest point total achievable—all the best choices are made at the correct time—is 188.

Students can play the game multiple times until a successful intervention of the attack is achieved which is required before the student can continue to the Advanced Exercises.

For the Advanced Exercise, students must successful pass an Application Check for each of the module’s lesson topics :

Collaboration Advanced Exercise: Application Check passed (70% minimum score)

Information Sharing Advanced Exercise: Application Check passed (70% minimum score)

Threat Recognition Advanced Exercise: Application Check passed (70% minimum score)

Risk Management Advanced Exercise: Application Check passed (70% minimum score)

Intervention Advanced Exercise: Application Check passed (70% minimum score)

Student progress and results are tracked by the learning management system and provided to the student on the End of Course Summary page.


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Course Structure/Content Outline

Module 1: Introductory Exercise

The introductory exercise exposes students to the overarching prevention concepts and principles using a highly interactive game-like environment. It is in essence a series of choices leading to a related and reasonable outcome. Each choice will affect the learner's success or failure in using the prevention process to prevent the undesirable outcomes of acts of terrorism. Each choice in the exercise will be mapped to a component of the prevention process (i.e., each choice is an instance of Collaboration, information Sharing, Recognizing Threats, Managing Risks, or Deciding to Intervene).

Module 2: Advanced Exercise

Situational Assessment Overview

Collaboration

- Situational Assessment

- Assignment

- Analyze Prior Choice

- Construct an ―Ideal‖ Collaborative Network

- Preparing for Collaboration

- Analyze the Enemy

- Building a Collaborative Network

- Maintaining a Collaborative Network

- Summary

- Re-Assess Prior Choice

- Skills Check

- Application Check

Information Sharing


- Assignment


- Partners for Sharing Information

- What to Share

- How to Share

- Summary



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- Skills Check

- Application Check

Threat Recognition


- Assignment


- Aspects of a Threat

- Identifying Security Hazards

- Understanding Groups’ Intentions

- Identifying Credible Threats

- Analyzing Capabilities

- Analyzing Vulnerabilities

- Assessing the Threat Environment

- Analyzing the Means of Attack

- Summary


- Skills Check

- Application Check

Risk Management


- Assignment


- What is Risk Management?

- Predictable Surprises

- Applying Risk Management

- Summary


- Skills Check

- Application Check

Intervention


- Assignment



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- What is Intervention?

- Whether to Intervene

- When to Intervene

- How to Intervene

- Summary


- Skills Check

- Application Check

Summary

Readings


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Course Design Matrix

Module One: Introductory Exercise

Scope Statement

Introductory Exercise

The introductory exercise exposes students to the overarching prevention concepts and principles using a highly interactive game-like environment. This exercise provides a series of choices leading to a related and reasonable outcome. Each choice will affect the learner's success or failure in using the prevention process to prevent the undesirable outcomes of acts of terrorism. Each choice in the exercise will be mapped to a component of the prevention process (i.e., each choice is an instance of Collaboration, information Sharing, Recognizing Threats, Managing Risks, or Deciding to Intervene). Three statements define the scope of this exercise.

1. This is a game-like exercise that focuses on the prevention of terrorism.

2. Prevention of terrorism is relevant to me, a law enforcement professional and the whole community.

3. There is a framework for engaging the prevention of terrorism.

Terminal Learning Objectives (TLO)

When students complete the Introductory Exercise they will be able to:

1. Recognize that preventing terrorism is relevant to their work in law enforcement and collaboration with the whole community.

2. Recognize that there are principles of prevention (a framework) that can be used in their work.

3. Summarize the essential components of the prevention framework.

Enabling Learning Objectives (ELO)

After completing the Introductory Exercise, students will be able to:

1. Identify at least one daily activity that helps prevent acts of terrorism.

2. Identify a majority of the prevention principles associated with the prevention framework

3. Apply the essential components of the prevention framework appropriately to prevent an imminent terrorist attack in the fictional jurisdiction of San Luis Rey.


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Lesson Topics

Terrorism Prevention

Collaboration

Information Sharing

Recognizing Threats

Managing Risks

Deciding to Intervene

Instructional Strategy

The Terrorism Prevention Certificate Course is comprised of one Introductory Exercise and five Advanced Exercises. All six exercises are related to one another by an overarching grand scenario and timeline of events.

Introductory Exercise

The introductory exercise exposes students to the overarching prevention concepts and principles using a highly interactive game-like environment. It is in essence a series of choices leading to a related and reasonable outcome. Each choice will affect the learner's success or failure in using the prevention process to prevent the undesirable outcomes of acts of terrorism. Each choice in the exercise will be mapped to a component of the prevention process (i.e., each choice is an instance of Collaboration, Information Sharing, Recognizing Threats, Managing Risks, or Deciding to Intervene).

The Introductory Exercise scenario begins about four hours before an imminent terrorist attack is to take place in the fictional jurisdiction of San Luis Rey. The scenario is designed to appeal to the operational/tactical nature of first responders. It rapidly exposes operationally focused students to the principles of prevention through a highly interactive, game-like, scenario-driven problem.

Assuming the role of a law enforcement officer, students are required to make realistic choices that carry future consequences on possible outcomes regarding developing a collaboration network, prioritizing information sharing, recognizing threats, managing risk, and deciding to intervene. Students start with 30 points that represent resources used for preventing the attack. Points are awarded or taken away depending on the choices they make. If too many poor decisions are made the point total drops below zero the terrorists win and the game is over. The highest point total achievable—all the best choices are made at the correct time—is 188. Students can play the game multiple times until a successful intervention of the attack is achieved which is required before the student can continue to the Advanced Exercises.


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There are many decision-paths that lead to successful or failed interventions. Therefore, making different choices changes the path to the end by opening or closing options as the scenario unfolds.

The targeted student population of law enforcement professionals often has an operational focus on Homeland Security prevention. Therefore, the introductory game focuses on decision-making in an operational or real time framework covering a period of approximately four days from assignment to attack.

Then, to gain a strategic perspective on prevention processes, students work through advanced exercises where they will go back in time and consider what they could have and should have done to prevent the attack long before it became a crisis situation. In the advanced exercises the student will go back 18 months in relation to the attack that occurs or is prevented in the 11th hour of the introductory game. During the lead-up period, terrorists will arrive in the United States or be recruited in the United States. They will seek legal immigrant status for ease of movement. They will find housing and look for legitimate jobs even as they settle in and organize sympathizers into functioning support, logistics, reconnaissance, and attack cells. They will engage in middling criminal activity that begins to show up on certain radars, but not as a priority.

As the terrorists go about their business of planning and implementing their attack over an 18 month period, the student will have the opportunity to make decisions that are deeper and more strategic than the decisions they were asked to make in the introductory exercise. They will have opportunities not only to select collaborative partners, for example, they will also learn more about their own collaborative approaches and successful techniques and approaches for optimizing collaborative opportunities.

Similarly, while the information sharing opportunities in the introductory exercise were simplified for brevity, in the time frame of 18 months, concerted decisions and approaches to what and how to share information with whom will need to be addressed. Likewise, more thoughtful, in-depth approaches to threat recognition, risk management, and intervention will be contextualized within the student’s engagement with the grand narrative and its characters. Core content, as previously discussed, will be accessible at the most appropriate points in the flow of the narrative and analysis.

Assessment Strategy

To successfully complete the Introductory Exercise, students are required to analyze decision outcomes, and make choices that reflect good practice in applying prevention techniques as the scenario unfolds. The combination of decisions and points awarded determine if the student has met terminal learning objectives.


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The outcome is either a successful intervention of the terrorist attack or failure. If the students fail on their first attempt to prevent the terrorist attack they are required to reengage the exercise from the beginning applying different analysis and making alternate choices.

A combination of decisions and choices that leads to a positive point award at the end of the game ensures the terminal learning objectives have been satisfied.

Practical Exercise (PE) Statement

From the Introductory Exercise Welcome page, students are instructed to perform the following in the order listed:

Watch the Overview Video Complete the Pre-Exercise Survey Begin the Introductory Exercise

From the Introductory Exercise starting page, students are instructed to: Choose Profile: The students can view and, if they would like, access additional background information on one of three profiles of law enforcement officers. They select an avatar from the three and take on the role of that avatar.

Get Assignment: Students can access the rules and basic assignment premise of the game. From a functional point of view, this is where rewards, points, outcomes, how to win, etc. will be introduced. It will be explicitly stated that the primary learning objective is the prevention process and that completion of the exercise is necessary for certification.

Begin Exercise: This option takes the student to the game space. When students select Begin Exercise the game will be loaded to the personal computer in a new browser window. The time for download can vary but it should not be more than 30 seconds. If any security windows open just click ―Yes‖ and continue.

When the download is complete the exercise will start with the morning meeting briefing conducted by the avatar chosen by the student.

Navigation throughout the game is intuitive and straightforward. There are visual and audio cues provided to alert students which button to select and when. If there are navigation questions students can get a short explanation of each button’s function by selecting Help and then Navigation.

After the consequences of the learner’s game-play have been revealed (either via a foiled terrorist attack or by media coverage of a successful attack), the learner enters a simplified, automated after-action session where the following takes place:

Their game choices are summarized.


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Their game choices are compared to the Lead Duty Officer’s choices. They are recommended to reengage the exercise choosing a different avatar if they choose; or they are recommended to engage the advanced exercise in order to complete their prevention certification process.

Upon successful completion of the Introductory Exercise, the learner is asked to complete the post exercise survey for continuous improvement.


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Course Design Matrix

Module 2: Advanced Exercise

Scope Statement

Advanced Exercise

The targeted student population of law enforcement professionals often has an operational focus on Homeland Security prevention. Therefore, the introductory game focuses on decision-making in an operational or real time framework covering a period of approximately four days from assignment to attack.

Then, to gain a strategic perspective on prevention processes, students work through advanced exercises where they will go back in time and consider what they could have and should have done to prevent the attack long before it became a crisis situation. In the advanced exercises the student will go back 18 months in relation to the attack that occurs or is prevented in the 11th hour of the introductory game. During the lead-up period, terrorists will arrive in the United States or be recruited in the United States. They will seek legal immigrant status for ease of movement. They will find housing and look for legitimate jobs even as they settle in and organize sympathizers into functioning support, logistics, reconnaissance, and attack cells. They will engage in middling criminal activity that begins to show up on certain radars, but not as a priority.

As the terrorists go about their business of planning and implementing their attack over an 18 month period, the student will have the opportunity to make decisions that are deeper and more strategic than the decisions they were asked to make in the introductory exercise. They will have opportunities not only to select collaborative partners, for example, they will also learn more about their own collaborative approaches and successful techniques and approaches for optimizing collaborative opportunities.

Similarly, while the information sharing opportunities in the introductory exercise were simplified for brevity, in the time frame of 18 months, concerted decisions and approaches to what and how to share information with whom will need to be addressed. Likewise, more thoughtful, in-depth approaches to threat recognition, risk management, and intervention will be contextualized within the student’s engagement with the grand narrative and its characters. Core content, as previously discussed, will be accessible at the most appropriate points in the flow of the narrative and analysis.

Terminal Learning Objectives (TLO)

At the end of the Certificate Program Advanced Exercises each student will be able to:

1. Understand and use the terminology of prevention in context to solve situated problems.


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2. Demonstrate awareness of their role in a larger prevention community that shares common goals and prevention standards across jurisdictions and disciplines.

3. Understand their prevention style, as well as the organizational/regional prevention needs and strengths of their local work environment.

Enabling Learning Objectives (ELO)

At the end of each Certificate Program Advanced Exercise, each student will be able to:

1. Evaluate a Situation Assessment, i.e. a briefing, of the current state of prevention activities in San Luis Rey, and the state of terrorist planning at that point in time, to evaluate the implications of that information for the prevention principle in question (Collaboration, Information Sharing, Threat Recognition, Risk Management, Intervention) to make appropriate decisions about using modes and types of Intervention.

2. Apply the information gained from the Situation Assessment to their current prevention problem using a ―game‖/problem-solving framework.

3. Define the key terms and approaches (what to do; best practices for each prevention principle) for each module, with the mastery verified through interactive skill checks.

4. Apply what they learned about each prevention principle by engaging in interactive application checks to verify their practical understanding.

Lesson Topics

Terrorism Prevention

Collaboration

Information Sharing

Recognizing Threats

Managing Risks

Deciding to Intervene

Instructional Strategy

Advanced Exercises

Where the Introductory Exercise is fast paced and tactically oriented, the Advanced Exercises are strategic and expose the students to a deeper treatment of the five analytical prevention principles.


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Collaboration

Information Sharing

Threat Recognition

Risk Management

Intervention

The Advanced Exercise scenario begins 18 months prior to the Introductory Exercise events. It begins with a Flash video that provides a situational assessment overview with a storyline concerning the motivations, international connections, and early activities of terrorists preparing to operate in the fictional jurisdiction of San Luis Rey.

As students sequentially progress through the five Advanced Exercises—Collaboration, Information Sharing, Threat Recognition, Managing Risk, Intervention—, the scenario timeline continues to count down towards the time frame of the Introductory Exercise. At the start of each Advanced Exercise, students gain more insight about terrorist planning and operational activities by engaging the Situational Assessment module.

Assessment Strategy

Two types of assessment are utilized in the Advanced Exercise.

Self-Assessment: Within the strategic framework of the Advanced Exercises, students reevaluate decisions they made during the Introductory Exercise concerning collaboration, information sharing, recognizing the threat, managing risk, and deciding to intervene. This critical reflection process deepens the students understanding of the differences between decision-making in a tactical versus a strategic environment.

Assessing Knowledge Level: Assessing the student’s knowledge of the fundamental principles of prevention is accomplished through a pre-assessment exercise, skills and application checks in each of the Advanced Exercises.

The Skills Check is a series of multiple choice questions about the targeted prevention principle—collaboration, information sharing, threat recognition, managing risk, deciding to intervene.

The Application Check is a scenario driven question-based evaluation and analysis assessment. Guided by a series of questions, students are asked to analyze and evaluate which San Luis Rey law enforcement officer offers the best plan for implementing and utilizing a particular prevention principle to prevent the growing terrorist threat.

Each Application Check contains six questions. A satisfactory score is 5 out of 6 answered correctly.


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The system allows students to retake the Application Check to reconsider their answers and make different choices.

Practical Exercise (PE) Statement

Each Advanced Exercise follows a template outlined below:

Advanced Exercise Interface: One of the five prevention principles (collaboration, information sharing, threat recognition, risk management, intervention) is defined. The goal of the module, the specific learning outcomes, recommended resources, and core content are presented within the context of the narrative and via student interactivity.

Prevention Principle Pre Assessment: Each Advanced Exercise starts with it own pre-assessment activity to check the student’s baseline knowledge. The pre-assessment is a short multiple-choice configured instrument.

Situational Assessment: These appear throughout each module and take the form of a briefing where students are ―read in‖ on the status of the narrative, including the time-frame covered in this module, the current state of prevention activities in SLR, the state of terrorist planning at that point, and any other narrative points that need to be exposed up-front.

Assignment: What we expect the student to ―do‖ in this module. This is their problem and is basically the learning outcomes for the module/level put into the narrative framework and a ―game‖/problem-solving framework. The student will then enter the story. Students will be led toward a predefined (but not revealed to the students) end-state by a series of decision points and action steps that either depend upon or are enhanced by engagement with the core content. As much as possible, core content is available in context at appropriate ―learning moments‖ in the narrative or problem-solving process.

Analyze Prior Choice: There are two opportunities to analyze the choices students made during the Introductory Exercise. The first opportunity occurs after receiving an updated situational assessment and before the student engages the core content. The second opportunity is available after the student engages the core content for that advanced exercise. These represent check points allowing the student to critically reflect on the tactical decisions they made within the new strategic context and with a better understanding of the prevention principles.

Skills Check: Since we are trying to introduce or promote a common language and approach to prevention, the key terms and approaches (what to do; best practices for principles of prevention; important considerations for prevention for example) for each module should be mastered and verified.

Application Check: Students are asked to apply what they learned to the scenario. Students must pass each Application Check with a 70% or higher score in order to receive completion


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credit. Students can re-take the Application Check if they don’t pass on the first attempt. Once the student has passed the Application Check they can move on to the next Advanced Exercise.

Course Agenda Phase 1

Login, registration, enrollment and updating User Account information Time: 35 min

Introductory Exercise Time: 65 min

Phase 2

Situational Assessment Overview Time: 15 min

Collaboration Advanced Exercise Time: 60 min Information Sharing Advanced Exercise Time: 60 min

Phase 3

Threat Recognition Advanced Exercise Time: 60 min

Risk Management Advanced Exercise Time: 60 min

Phase 4

Intervention Advanced Exercise Time: 60 min

Exit Survey/Verify certificate Requirements are met Time: 30 min

Total Number of Hours: 7.0-8.0 hours