Fusion Centers

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Fusion Centers You

• Bill Burgess
• NSGIC Washington Liaison

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(No Transcript)
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Up Front

• Im no expert on Fusion Centers
• I spent more than ten minutes reading about them
• Im able to copy bullets from a document and
  insert them into a PowerPointtm presentation

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''What Is a Fusion Center?Political Version

• A fusion center is an effective and efficient
  mechanism to exchange information and
  intelligence, maximize resources, streamline
  operations, and improve the ability to fight
  crime and terrorism by merging data from a
  variety of sources. In addition, fusion centers
  are a conduit for implementing portions of the
  National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan
  (NCISP).''Excerpt fromFusion Center
  Guidelines Executive Summary

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What is a Fusion Center?Better Definition

• A fusion center is a collaborative effort of two
  or more agencies that provide resources,
  expertise, and/or information to the center with
  the goal of maximizing the ability to detect,
  prevent, investigate, apprehend, and respond to
  criminal and terrorist activity.
• Excerpt from
• Fusion Center Guidelines
• Department of Justice

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What is a Fusion Center?Plain English

• A single place where law enforcement,
  intelligence, and allied agency personnel with
  need to know slips can work together and
  exchange important information
• They all bring their own information technology
  and sources of information
• They look for trends, problems, red flags, and
  criminal or terrorist activities
• They tell the other people with need to know
  slips when they see something suspicious
• They all work together through their agencies to
  resolve problems and monitor activities

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What Gets Fused

• Private Sector Information
• Public Safety Information
• Law Enforcement Information
• The above information is collected, integrated,
  evaluated, analyzed, and disseminated

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Functional Categories of Information

• Agriculture, Food, Water and the Environment
• Banking and Finance
• Chemical Industry and Hazardous Materials
• Criminal Justice
• Education
• Emergency Services (non-law enforcement)
• Energy
• Government
• Health and Public Health Services

• Hospitality and Lodging
• Information and Telecommunications
• Military Facilities and Defense Industrial Base
• Postal and Shipping
• Private Security
• Public Works
• Real Estate
• Retail
• Social Services
• Transportation

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The Intelligence Process
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Why Should You Care?

• Fusion Centers will affect you in some way
• You have a great deal to offer them
• Fusion Centers are a priority issue for
  governments at all levels
• They will become increasingly important with
  regard to intergovernmental information flow
• If you arent paying attention they may subsume
  existing GIS Coordination efforts

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Why Should You Care?

• Concerns of police intelligence units are
  generally internalized to their own operations -
  not focused on the really big picture for all
  government
• Historically not heavy GIS users
• Capacity expertise issues
• One of many efforts for which state and local
  governments are asked to cooperate

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June 7, 2006

• DHS Secretary Chertoff approved the DHS Support
  Implementation Plan for State Local Fusion
  Centers dated March 7, 2006
• Commit resources for
• Assessment,
• Governance
• Staffing
• Grants
• Training
• Information Technology

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Business Plan License Agreement for sharing
Critical Infrastructure Framework Data with
the Federal Government
Cities
State Agencies
National Guard
Other Interests
Statewide Coordination Council
USGS Liaisons
Regional Councils
Counties
Special Districts
Emerg. Mgmt. Agency
Tribal (where willing)
License Agreement
Data Models
Fusion Center?
Version 5 DRAFT Conceptual Model for sharing
Critical Infrastructure and Framework Geospatial
data between Local, State and Federal
Agencies _____________________________________ Bui
lding on the FGDC Fifty States Initiative
Appropriate State POC for ETL
NOAA USGS DOE DOT EPA FAA FCC HHS HUD TVA USDA
MOA
MOA
MOA
NGA
US Post Office Red Cross
DoD
Department of Homeland Security
Other Interests
Other Federal Civil Agencies
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Existing Fusion Centersas of 12/01/05
DC
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The Geospatial Community is on the Outside
Looking In
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What You Should Do

• Google Fusion Centers
• Start Reading
• Start Contacting the RIGHT People in your State
• Be positive and proactive

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State Police Intelligence Units
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I Probably Cant Answer Your Questions?
National States Geographic Information Council
http//www.nsgic.org
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Washington Post Wednesday, August 9, 2006 Page
A07 A Model for Cooperation In Arizona,
Officials Share Data the Old-Fashioned Way
Norm Beasley, right, designed the Arizona Counter
Terrorism Information Center with his friend Ray
Churay. It is considered one of the most
effective of all the "fusion centers" created
after the 9/11 attacks. (By David Wallace For The
Washington Post)
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Paradigm Shift on Information Exchange

• ''In developing our country's response to the
  threat of terrorism, public safety leaders from
  all disciplines have recognized the need to
  improve the sharing of information and
  intelligence across agency borders. Every law
  enforcement, public safety, and private sector
  official involved in information and intelligence
  sharing has a stake in this initiative. Leaders
  must move forward with a new paradigm on the
  exchange of information and intelligence.''Excer
  pt fromThe Role of Leadership,Fusion Center
  Guidelines