The Knox County Sheriff’s Office Homeland Security / Gang Intelligence Unit is a multi-faceted unit that has several areas of responsibility. Our primary responsibility is to prepare for any disaster that may occur in Knox County. The unit also acts as a liaison between the sheriff’s office and federal, state, and local emergency response organizations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), and the Knoxville Emergency Management Agency (KEMA). We also keep inventory of the sheriff’s office assents and capabilities of the department’s special teams for deployment. The Homeland Security Unit maintains tasks force officers with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). The unit also receives and provides intelligence for the Department of Energy (DOE) Y-12 National Security Complex, The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (AFT), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and the Tennessee Department of Homeland Security Fusion Center. The unit also distributes officer safety bulletins to the officers at the Knox County Sheriff’s Office from the intelligence gathered from these agencies. The Homeland Security Unit maintains intelligence files on domestic terrorism suspects such as sovereign citizens, violent anti-government organizations, violent protest groups, and any other person that makes terroristic threats against Knox County. The Gang Intelligence Unit maintains up to date gang files on over 1,500 known gang members in the greater Knoxville area. These files are used to assist the Knox County District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office prosecute violent gang members by providing expert testimony on gang identification at trial. The unit also assists the other sheriff’s office investigative units with gang member identification and intelligence. The Gang Unit also provides Police Officer Standards and Training (P.O.S.T.) and Tennessee Corrections Institute (TCI) certified gang training throughout the State of Tennessee. The detectives in the Gang Unit are professional members and office holders in the Tennessee Gang Investigator’s Association, which holds gang training classes and court testimony for gang prosecutions throughout the State of Tennessee.