Video Transcript

When we talk about the JTTF, we tend to talk about the really high-profile cases, because even here in the District of Kansas, we've had we've had many of them. Right here in here in … out of the Kansas City Division of the FBI, we've had some of the nation's most important terrorism cases.

But the JTTF also spends a lot of time dealing with the really mundane cases, right. There's so many threats or potential threats that come in over the Guardian system that go to the JTTF and go to those agents and TFOs that have to be resolved because you never know which one of those is going to turn into a really significant threat.

But for every one that does turn into a significant threat, or that does reveal itself to be a significant threat, there were, I don't know the number—dozens, hundreds, maybe—that that aren't. And it's the job of those agents to discern which of those Guardian leads is somebody who could really pose a danger to our country and which one is just a keyboard warrior or somebody who has some mental health issues that really need to be addressed. And that's, I think, some of the most important work that's done on a daily basis inside the JTTF. And nobody sees it.

It works well because you're bringing all of the relevant partners to the table. I think in the past, law enforcement was too stovepipes and too territorial. The JTTF was really the first mechanism that I saw that sort of pushed past that stove-piping and it pushed past the territorialism. And it brought everybody together in an organized structure and really made everybody work together. And now that's something that I can tell you that as an agency head right now, I strive to do that every day in almost every aspect of what we do.

We are stronger together than we are individually. The more we collaborate, the more we work together, the better off we all are. And there are some elements of law enforcement that still exist that are very territorial and very parochial. And we have to push past that. And I think we're doing that more and more every day. But the more we bring people together and collaborate on every single issue and every single project, the better off that we're going to be. And the JTTF really is the model for that.