Since 2001, public attention on terrorism has seemed to focused on possible attacks only from foreign extremists. Following every report of a possible or attempted attack, airport security is tightened; public fear increases; and a new wave of insecurity and mistrust sweeps through agencies and citizens alike. This was not the case in pre-9/11 days, even when a landmark incident occurred.  In 1995, America experienced a terrorist attack of proportions not previously experienced in preceding decades. The incident killed 168 people, including 19 children in a day care center. The terrorists used explosives concocted from ordinary materials in an attack on a government office building. They were not from the middle east, Pakistan, Afghanistan, southeast Asia, or Somalia. They were the domestic terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. SInce the 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, seventy-five terrorist incidents have claimed the lives of 28 law enforcement officers and injured many more law enforcement, fire service, emergency medical, and other emergency response personnel.  So what does this have to do with spatial intelligence? There are hundreds of hate groups in America responsible for an estimated 191,000 reported and unreported hate crimes occur each year. The Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, tracks incidents of domestic terrorism and the locations of the known organized groups, large and small. 


Last fall, the Center issued a report on pl ots, conspiracies, and racial rampages since the Oklahoma City bombing, compete with (you got it!) a map of the location of hate groups. This generalized hate groups map provides a spatial assessment indicating the concentrations of various groups responsible for and having the potential for domestic terrorism, both large and small scale incidents.  Law enforcement agencies should be aware of the location and movements of hate groups in their regions, but do they share the potential risks with emergency managers, fire service personnel on a regular basis? Does the emergency manager, fire chief, EMS manager ask? Objectively, terrorism might be the motivation behind an incident, and emergency responders and managers must deal with the situation as they find it at the scene. But having the intelligence of motive (reason) of the incident could provide indicators of the type of response needed and help guide the actions of responders more safely (e.g., dangers of additional explosive devices, biological or chemical contamination, snipers). Spatial intelligence is more than mapping the closest fire hydrant, storm drain, or hospital. It's knowing why you need to know where they are.