Building Communities of Trust

Overview
The Building Communities of Trust (BCOT) initiative is designed to encourage and improve information sharing among police officers, fusion centers, and the communities they serve &mdash; particularly immigrant and minority communities &mdash; to address the challenges of crime control and terrorism prevention. The knowledge and insight that comes from trust-based relationships between law enforcement and the community are critical because they allow law enforcement to better distinguish between innocent behaviors and behaviors that may be indicative of criminal activity.

Through 2012, the Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI) led implementation of BCOT efforts, culminating in a roundtable in December 2012. In January 2013, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in collaboration with the NSI PMO; the office of the PM-ISE; DOJ's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services; and the U.S. Attorney's Office, took the lead in implementing the BCOT initiative across the country to help facilitate relationships of trust among local communities, local law enforcement, and fusion centers.