diff --git a/policy/utils/pattern.bro b/policy/utils/pattern.bro
index a012247232..107eebce5b 100644
--- a/policy/utils/pattern.bro
+++ b/policy/utils/pattern.bro
@@ -1,11 +1,13 @@
 ##! Functions for creating and working with patterns.
 
-## This function only works at or before init time.  Given a pattern as a string
-## with two tildes (~~) contained in it, it will return a pattern with the
-## set[string] elements OR'd together where the double-tilde was given.
-## If a literal backslash is include in 'pat', it needs to be given as a double
-## backslash due to Bro's string parsing reducing it to a single backslash
-## upon rendering.
+## Given a pattern as a string with two tildes (~~) contained in it, it will
+## return a pattern with string set's elements OR'd together where the
+## double-tilde was given (this function only works at or before init time).
+## ss: a set of strings to OR together
+## pat: the pattern containing a "~~"  in it.  If a literal backslash is
+##      included, it needs to be escaped with another backslash due to Bro's
+##      string parsing reducing it to a single backslash upon rendering.
+## Returns: the input pattern with "~~" replaced by OR'd elements of input set
 function set_to_regex(ss: set[string], pat: string): pattern
 	{
 	local i: count = 0;
@@ -31,15 +33,13 @@ type PatternMatchResult: record {
 
 ## Matches the given pattern against the given string, returning
 ## a :bro:type:`PatternMatchResult` record.
-## For example:
-##     match_pattern("foobar", /o*[a-k]/)
-## returns:
-##     [matched=T, str=f, off=1]
-## because the *first* match is for zero o's followed by an [a-k],
-## while:
-##     match_pattern("foobar", /o+[a-k]/)
-## returns:
-##     [matched=T, str=oob, off=2]
+## For example: ``match_pattern("foobar", /o*[a-k]/)`` returns
+## ``[matched=T, str=f, off=1]``,  because the *first* match is for
+## zero o's followed by an [a-k], but ``match_pattern("foobar", /o+[a-k]/)``
+## returns ``[matched=T, str=oob, off=2]``
+## s: a string to match against
+## p: a pattern to match
+## Returns: a record indicating the match status
 function match_pattern(s: string, p: pattern): PatternMatchResult
 	{
 	local a = split_n(s, p, T, 1);
diff --git a/policy/utils/strings.bro b/policy/utils/strings.bro
index 6db9a002df..2836f368b4 100644
--- a/policy/utils/strings.bro
+++ b/policy/utils/strings.bro
@@ -9,8 +9,11 @@ function is_string_binary(s: string): bool
 	return byte_len(gsub(s, /[\x00-\x7f]/, "")) * 100 / |s| >= 25;
 	}
 
-## Takes a :bro:type:`set[string]` and joins each element together with the 
-## second argument.
+## Joins a set of string together, with elements delimited by a constant string.
+## ss: a set of strings to join
+## j: the string used to join set elements
+## Returns: a string composed of the all elements of the set, delimited by the
+##          joining string.
 function join_string_set(ss: set[string], j: string): string
 	{
 	local output="";
@@ -26,9 +29,11 @@ function join_string_set(ss: set[string], j: string): string
 	return output;
 	}
 
-## Given a string, returns an escaped version.  This means that
-## (1) any occurrences of any character in "chars" are escaped using '\', and
-## (2) any '\'s are likewise escaped.
+## Given a string, returns an escaped version.
+## s: a string to escape
+## chars: a string containing all the characters that need to be escaped
+## Returns: a string with all occurrences of any character in ``chars`` escaped
+##          using ``\``, and any literal ``\`` characters likewise escaped.
 function string_escape(s: string, chars: string): string
 	{
 	s = subst_string(s, "\\", "\\\\");
@@ -38,6 +43,9 @@ function string_escape(s: string, chars: string): string
 	}
 
 ## Cut a number of character from the end of the given string.
+## s: a string to trim
+## tail_len: the number of characters to remove from end of string
+## Returns: the string in ``s`` with ``tail_len`` characters removed from end
 function cut_tail(s: string, tail_len: count): string
 	{
 	if ( tail_len > |s| )
diff --git a/policy/utils/thresholds.bro b/policy/utils/thresholds.bro
index 6bf90f307e..14bcc3b50b 100644
--- a/policy/utils/thresholds.bro
+++ b/policy/utils/thresholds.bro
@@ -22,8 +22,12 @@ export {
 		30, 100, 1000, 10000, 100000, 1000000, 10000000,
 	} &redef;
 	
-	## This will check if a :bro:type:`TrackCount` variable has crossed the 
-	## thresholds given in the first value.
+	## This will check if a :bro:type:`TrackCount` variable has crossed any
+	## thresholds in a given set.
+	## v: a vector holding counts that represent thresholds
+	## tracker: the record being used to track event counter and currently
+	##          monitored threshold value
+	## Returns: T if a threshold has been crossed, else F
 	global check_threshold: function(v: vector of count, tracker: TrackCount): bool;
 	
 	## This will use the :bro:id:`default_notice_thresholds` variable to check 
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/policy.utils.pattern/output b/testing/btest/Baseline/policy.utils.pattern/output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9400dc37ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/policy.utils.pattern/output
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+/^?((blarg|blah|bleh))$?/
+T
+/^?(foo(blarg|blah|bleh)bar)$?/
+T
+[matched=T, str=blah, off=4]
+[matched=F, str=, off=0]
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/policy.utils.strings/output b/testing/btest/Baseline/policy.utils.strings/output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4f5f06eca1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/policy.utils.strings/output
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+'hello' is NOT considered binary
+'\xff\xff\xff\0' IS considered binary
+'\0\0\xff\0' IS considered binary
+'\0\0\0\0' is NOT considered binary
+two, one, three
+one
+hell\o w\orl\d
+\\hello world\\
+hello world
+hello worl
+hello
+
+
diff --git a/testing/btest/Baseline/policy.utils.thresholds/output b/testing/btest/Baseline/policy.utils.thresholds/output
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0fa85cc81b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/Baseline/policy.utils.thresholds/output
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+Iteration: 0, threshold check: F
+[n=0, index=0]
+Iteration: 1, threshold check: F
+[n=1, index=0]
+Iteration: 2, threshold check: T
+[n=2, index=1]
+Iteration: 3, threshold check: F
+[n=3, index=1]
+Iteration: 4, threshold check: T
+[n=4, index=2]
+Iteration: 5, threshold check: F
+[n=5, index=2]
+Iteration: 6, threshold check: T
+[n=6, index=3]
+Iteration: 7, threshold check: F
+[n=7, index=3]
+Iteration: 8, threshold check: T
+[n=8, index=4]
+Iteration: 9, threshold check: F
+[n=9, index=4]
+Iteration: 10, threshold check: T
+[n=10, index=5]
+====================================
+Iteration: 0, threshold check: F
+[n=0, index=0]
+Iteration: 1, threshold check: F
+[n=1, index=0]
+Iteration: 2, threshold check: T
+[n=2, index=1]
+Iteration: 3, threshold check: F
+[n=3, index=1]
+Iteration: 4, threshold check: T
+[n=4, index=2]
+Iteration: 5, threshold check: F
+[n=5, index=2]
+Iteration: 6, threshold check: T
+[n=6, index=3]
+Iteration: 7, threshold check: F
+[n=7, index=3]
+Iteration: 8, threshold check: T
+[n=8, index=4]
+Iteration: 9, threshold check: F
+[n=9, index=4]
+Iteration: 10, threshold check: T
+[n=10, index=5]
diff --git a/testing/btest/policy/utils/pattern.test b/testing/btest/policy/utils/pattern.test
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c16015a85b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/policy/utils/pattern.test
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+# @TEST-EXEC: bro %INPUT >output
+# @TEST-EXEC: btest-diff output
+
+@load utils/pattern
+
+global r1 = set_to_regex(set("blah", "bleh", "blarg"), "(~~)");
+global r2 = set_to_regex(set("blah", "bleh", "blarg"), "foo(~~)bar");
+
+print r1;
+print "blah" == r1;
+
+print r2;
+print "fooblargbar" == r2;
+
+print match_pattern("123blah123", r1);
+print match_pattern("no match here", r1);
diff --git a/testing/btest/policy/utils/strings.test b/testing/btest/policy/utils/strings.test
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..16de71d5ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/policy/utils/strings.test
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+# @TEST-EXEC: bro %INPUT >output
+# @TEST-EXEC: btest-diff output
+
+@load utils/strings
+
+function test_binary_string(s: string)
+	{
+	if ( is_string_binary(s) )
+		print fmt("'%s' IS considered binary", s);
+	else
+		print fmt("'%s' is NOT considered binary", s);
+	}
+
+test_binary_string("\x68\x65\x6C\x6C\x6F");
+test_binary_string("\xFF\xFF\xFF\x00");
+test_binary_string("\x00\x00\xFF\x00");
+test_binary_string("\x00\x00\x00\x00");
+
+print join_string_set(set("one", "two", "three"), ", ");
+print join_string_set(set("one"), ", ");
+
+print string_escape("hello world", "od");
+print string_escape("\\hello world\\", "");
+
+print cut_tail("hello world", 0);
+print cut_tail("hello world", 1);
+print cut_tail("hello world", 6);
+print cut_tail("hello world", 11);
+print cut_tail("hello world", 12);
diff --git a/testing/btest/policy/utils/thresholds.test b/testing/btest/policy/utils/thresholds.test
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0439841e41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/testing/btest/policy/utils/thresholds.test
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# @TEST-EXEC: bro %INPUT >output
+# @TEST-EXEC: btest-diff output
+
+@load utils/thresholds
+
+redef default_notice_thresholds = { 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 };
+const my_thresholds: vector of count = { 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 };
+const loop_v: vector of count = { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 };
+global track_count: TrackCount;
+
+for ( i in loop_v )
+	{
+	print fmt("Iteration: %s, threshold check: %s", i,
+	          check_threshold(my_thresholds, track_count));
+	print track_count;
+	++track_count$n;
+	}
+
+track_count$n = 0; track_count$index = 0;
+
+print "====================================";
+for ( i in loop_v )
+	{
+	print fmt("Iteration: %s, threshold check: %s", i,
+	          default_check_threshold(track_count));
+	print track_count;
+	++track_count$n;
+	}