Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff Department’s model factors into international organization’s work
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
In an effort to increase its Eastern European footprint in terms of combating transnational crime, CRIME STOPPERS GLOBAL SOLUTIONS (CSGS), the international arm of the many Crime Stoppers organizations here in the U.S., is beginning programmatic work in Serbia this month, specifically October 16.
“This is part of our increasing CSGS’s footprint in Eastern Europe as well as throughout the United States and the rest of the world,” said Justin Insalaco, retired New Jersey police officer and current CSGS boardmember. “It’s necessary because everything is connected worldwide.”
Richland County (S.C.) Sheriff Leon Lott, who was named to CSGS’s board of directors in July, agrees.
“Crime Stoppers Global Solutions in Serbia and CSGS elsewhere around the world helps connect the dots in terms of the very actionable intelligence collection that we use as do our local, state, national, and international partners,” said Lott. “This is vital work benefitting all.”
According to Insalaco, “As our local and state-level law enforcement organizations operate, many disparate crime-stoppers organizations exist. What we are trying to achieve at a large scale is a collaborative model where Crime Stoppers no longer assists after a crime has been committed, but utilizes the anonymized data being collected through crime tipping and enriching it with data like publicly available data, regularly referred to as OSINT, or Open Source Intelligence, and ADINT, or Advertising Intelligence.”
Utilizing various technology platforms both at home and abroad, CSGS is able to provide actionable intelligence to local law enforcement agencies before community violence or crimes occur and also works with local partners (i.e. community violence intervention groups) to provide a clear working picture of where to effectively and efficiently deploy preventative resources.
“Community relations is key,” says Lott. “Our constant work and information sharing at the local level here in Richland County has enabled us to far-more effectively combat crime – everything from gang activity to drug and human trafficking to the threat of international terrorism – and to ensure that our communities are as safe as we can make them and then some.”
Lott continues: “Expanding this community relations model from state to state and beyond our national borders serves us all.”
Insalaco says that having experienced law enforcement professionals like Sheriff Lott within the CSGS organization, specifically as an executive advisor serving on the board, helps CSGS address the “fine line” of protecting and respecting privacy while gathering and producing the best intelligence possible.”
“Sheriff Lott has developed and proven at the local level – and in his work with foreign law enforcement agencies – the best methods of collecting information to be processed into finished intelligence,” says Insalaco. “He has deep operational experience which is invaluable to us.”
CSGS combats transnational crime and mitigates threats to national and international security with focuses on combating international terrorism, human trafficking, weapons trafficking, drug smuggling, illicit trade, cybercrime, bank fraud and money laundering.
In the near three-decades since Lott was first-elected to the office of sheriff, his near-1,000-employee Richland County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) has today earned a reputation both nationally and internationally as one of America’s premier law enforcement agencies. As such in 2010, Lott traveled to Erbil, Iraq at the invitation of the Iraqi government to help that war-torn country establish its first-ever female police academy.
RCSD continues its strong relationship and an officer exchange program with Iraq, as it does with other foreign law enforcement agencies and U.S. military forces domestically.
Lott, who was first elected to office in 1996, is up for reelection in November.
[Pictured L-R Justin Insalaco and Sheriff Leon Lott]
For additional information about Crime Stoppers Global Solutions and law enforcement partnering opportunities, please visit – https://thecsgs.org/about/.
