The key to the success of the JTTF concept remains the melding of personnel from the various law enforcement agencies into a single focused unit. All members of the JTTF must think and perform as a team.

This concept best uses the individual skills and expertise of each JTTF member. The benefits of this integration are innumerable. NYPD members bring the insight that comes from years of living and working with the people in the city. These members typically have advanced through careers from uniformed precinct patrol to various detective duties before being assigned to the JTTF.

The FBI special agents bring vast investigative experience from assignments all over the world. The FBI Legal Attaches remain of particular benefit to the task force. These special agents, assigned to U.S. embassies throughout the world, provide initial law enforcement information on JTTF international terrorism cases.

Each of the other participating agencies similarly contributes its own resources and areas of expertise to the JTTF. The integration of the many agencies, each bringing its own unique skills and investigative specialties to the task force, makes this unit formidable in combating terrorism.

Despite the obvious benefits of the JTTF, measuring the success and effectiveness of the unit is not always as clear when judged by traditional standards. Law enforcement officers who work on terrorism-related investigations can labor for months without producing the usual results often used to judge the efficiency of a functioning detective squad (e.g., numbers of arrests, cases cleared, cases closed). Supervisors monitoring the productivity of the JTTF initially might not be impressed with the numbers produced, but such numbers can be deceiving. Opinions of the capabilities of the task force changed rapidly and dramatically on a day in February 1993.