DHS/S&T/PIA-007 Violent Intent Modeling (VIMS) Program

This Privacy Impact Assessment describes the research and development objectives of the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate's Human Factors Division Violent Intent Modeling System (VIMS). The goal of VIMS is to determine whether including social and behavioral theories and concepts (from established research) in a software tool that is used to analyze group behaviors and motivations will improve the ability of analysts to identify indicators that could predict group violence. The project will develop a social and behaviorally based framework of theories and concepts that includes modeling and simulation tools to improve the efficiency and accuracy of analysts examining the likelihood of a group choosing violence to achieve its goals. This PIA is necessary because personally identifiable information will be collected as part of the research and development effort.