Chertoff reiterates support for municipal data fusion centers
Intent is to improve information sharing between federal and local authorities; agency has already invested $380 million in centers in New York, Illinois, Maryland, and elsewhere; 55 more to come on-line by the end of next fiscal year; facilitating security clearances another critical objective
The recent death of Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle was a great tragedy, but the accident, in which Lidle’s small plane crashed into a Manhattan apartment building, demonstrated some of the post 9/11 progress in improving federal and local emergency communications routines. Although the crash at first blush appeared to be terrorism related, prompting fighter jets to control New York’s airspace, DHS quicky stood down after local authorities concluded it was an accident. Much more, however, has yet to be done to coordinate federal and munipal information sources, and so DHS this week reiterated its intent to create fusion centers in major metropolitan areas and to facilitate the security clearance process for local emergency officials.
The new fusion centers will bring together intelligence personnel from the federal intelligence community, subject matter experts and intelligence analysts and operators of local police departments, DHS officials said, in order to “become more deeply embedded in one another’s day-to-day intelligence analysis and operational activity.” DHS has already invested $380 million in similar state-run fusion centers — including those in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, and New York — and the agency intends to create fifty-five more by the end of the next fiscal year. The Justice Department has already issued the appropriate regulations.
-read more in Kerri Hostetler’s Washington Technology report
