Overview[]
The Air Force Office of Special Investigations developed the Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) report format in 2001 for its Eagle Eye Program, a neighborhood watch program to detect and report suspicious activity of possible targeting of Air Force interests by terrorists. The TALON report program was instituted DoD-wide on May 2, 2003, by Deputy Secretary of Defense memorandum, “Collection, Reporting, and Analysis of Terrorist Threats to DoD Within the United States,” because DoD had no formal mechanism to collect and share non-validated domestic threat information between intelligence, counterintelligence, law enforcement, and force protection entities and to analyze that information for indications of foreign terrorist activity.
Seven criteria were taken into account in the creation of a TALON report:
- Nonspecific threats
- Surveillance
- Elicitation
- Tests of security
- Repetitive activities
- Bomb threats, and
- Suspicious activities and/or incidents.
A TALON report consists of raw information reported by concerned citizens and military members about suspicious incidents. The memorandum also directs that TALON reports be provided to the DoD Counterintelligence Field Activity for incorporation into a database repository. The Counterintelligence Field Activity is a designated DoD law enforcement and counterintelligence organization and serves as the bridge between intelligence related to international terrorism information and domestic law enforcement information.