Denver's The CELL: Center for Empowered Living and Learning

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The 8 signs of terrorism: what to look for KUSA

It is the information and awareness that many believe can save lives in the future and could have possibly prevented Sept. 11. Terrorism - we have become keenly aware of potential threats. But do people really know what to look for?

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI put together a list of eight signs of terrorism.

Denver-based Center for Empowered Living and Learning (The CELL) is working on a video that will educate citizens and police on what those eight signs are.

"As people become more educated on the subject matter, they understand what suspicious versus what is everyday, normal activity and that is something in which we strive," said Melanie Pearlman, The CELL's Executive Director. "We want to empower individuals to become active and engaged to ultimately mitigate the threat but not so much that they're afraid to go about their everyday lives and it's a fine balance."

The CELL is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization created to educate people about terrorism. In February it launched an exhibit "Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: Understanding the Threat of Terrorism" located in Denver's Civic Center Cultural Plaza across from the Denver Art Museum. "The 8 signs of Terrorism" video will be added to the exhibit Sept. 15.

Film crews have been filming across the Front Range: at Red Rocks, The Capitol, Chatfield Reservoir, Union Station, among other places. The idea is to have actors show some of the suspicious behavior experts say is on the list.

"We wanted to get a broad range of the situations in which people are most likely to be in to detect suspicious activity," Pearlman said. "Unfortunately things have been targeted such as the Capitol here in Colorado. Other places in which people could be vigilant are major events, such as concerts or at a baseball or football game or at the Stock Show."

The video will also be used for training for police departments across Colorado. Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado Department of Public Safety and the Governor's Office of Homeland Security are partnering with The CELL to produce the video. Grants from the Department of Homeland Security are paying for it.

"At the core, if our communities aren't prepared, we're never going to be able to prevent, respond to or recover from any act, whether it's a terrorist incident or any other hazard," said Deanna Erstad, grant program supervisor for the Governor's Office Of Homeland Security. "It's probably the most important thing we can do is to promote again vigilance, preparedness and the ability of our communities to respond."

Colorado Information Analysis Center gets tips every day, 318 have been received so far in 2009. CIAC is designed to link local and federal law enforcement, to bankers and school teachers. It focuses on detection, prevention and information-driven response to protect citizens and critical infrastructure.

"It's not people just reporting on their neighbors, it's actually signs of surveillance, signs of suspicious activity going on all across Colorado," Captain Steve Garcia with CIAC said.

"We want to ensure citizens through their everyday lives look at different signs of terrorism events that they can report to local law enforcement or to the Fusion Center to ensure that these types of attacks don't happen in the future," he said.

9NEWS anchor Kim Christiansen and football legend John Elway are voices for the video. "

Click here to see the 8 signs of terrorism.

http://www.thecell.org/

https://www.ciac.co.gov/



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