Dear Mayor:

When Governor James E. McGreevey established the New Jersey Office of Counter-Terrorism, he charged it with identifying, deterring and detecting terrorist-related activities. Obviously, deterrence requires that we share critical threat information.

To protect New Jersey 's citizens and vital resources from a terrorist attack, government officials at all levels and representatives of private industry must receive threat information in real time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year.

Mayors, for example, often see a “bigger picture” and understand broader implications of threats to their municipalities.

That's why we are moving to provide you with real-time threat information by inviting you to enroll in the New Jersey 's Office of Counter-Terrorism's advanced communications system.

This advanced communication system allows us to distribute alerts and other important homeland security information almost instantaneously to your municipalities as well as schools, chemical plants, refineries and other critical personnel, facilities and institutions throughout the state.

This advanced communications system, developed by the Office of Counter-Terrorism with technical assistance from the New Jersey State Police, comprises two major components: The Communicator!™ call-out emergency notification system and a secure infrastructure protection Web site.

The Communicator!
A high-speed notification system, The Communicator! automatically contacts an unlimited number of individuals, groups or teams by phone, pager, fax and e-mail and delivers incident-specific information or potentially life-saving instruction; confirms message receipt; and prints or faxes comprehensive reports detailing call-out results.

Secure Infrastructure Protection Web Site
The secure site serves as a the state platform for distributing information about local, state and federal infrastructure to government, law enforcement, the private sector, and emergency services. In addition to posted bulletins and alerts, the Web site contains a comprehensive directory of organizations, sector-specific incident reports and document libraries, more than one hundred related links, and an up-to-date calendar of upcoming events.

How do I sign up?

• In order to be enrolled in the Office of Counter-Terrorism's Communications System please email your request to: oct@lps.state.nj.us or call us at 609-341-3434. Note: your request must include your e-mail address and a telephone contact number.

• We will e-mail you an Office of Counter-Terrorism Communications System contact information form.

• Complete the contact information form, which provides information for The Communicator! System, and return it to the Office of Counter-Terrorism by fax at (609) 341-2960.

• You will be then be sent an auto-generated e-mail from us providing your personal authentication code and setting forth general directions on how to access the secure Web site.

Ultimately, through initiatives such as this communications system, New Jersey and the Office of Counter-Terrorism are changing relationships among all levels of government and private business and industry. Our ability to deter attacks depends on an integrated response from all levels of government — in cooperation with private businesses and industry. Mayors are clearly an integral link in this chain.

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Sincerely,

Sidney J. Caspersen, Director

New Jersey Office of Counter-Terrorism