# Task Force Officer **Aliases:** TFO **Entity class:** Interagency personnel assignment ## Definition A **task-force officer (TFO)** is an officer or other qualified employee assigned by a partner agency to work with a task force while ordinarily remaining employed by the originating federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial organization. Assignment can provide access, authorities, training, and systems appropriate to the task force without converting the officer into an employee of the lead agency. The FBI reported approximately 4,000 JTTF members in October 2024, including FBI personnel and TFOs from more than 500 state and local agencies and 50 federal agencies. ## Relationships - **principal counterterrorism setting:** [[wiki/Joint Terrorism Task Force|Joint Terrorism Task Force]]. - **lead agency:** [[wiki/Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]]. - **can operate:** [[wiki/Confidential Human Source|Confidential Human Sources]] under FBI guidelines. - **counting distinction:** assigned partner personnel are not the same as lead-agency employees. ## Sources / Provenance - [FBI — Celebrating 45 Years of Joint Terrorism Task Forces, October 2024](https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/celebrating-45-years-of-fbi-joint-terrorism-task-forces) - [DOJ — FBI Confidential Human Source Guidelines, 2020](https://www.justice.gov/usdoj-media/oip/media/1254421/dl?inline=)