Fusion centers are organizations created for information sharing and analysis especially on terrorism incidents. The fusion centers’ primary role is to allow the exchange of intelligence among law enforcement agencies at all levels of governance from local to federal. Fusion centers have grown progressively indicating in that no organization whether police or public safety government has all the resource required in addressing crime. With the use of fusion centers, all agencies can bring together their resources and increase efficiency in dealing with crime issues. Information sharing brings expertise in dealing with criminal matters while saving on time and exposes the patterns of crime as well as the aspects of crime (Lambert, 2010). Therefore Fusion centers are handy tools in the law enforcement process. However, fusion centers are vulnerable to abusing citizens’ right if used misguidedly as shall be seen in the subsequent section.
In the process of acquiring intelligence, fusion centers are likely to violate the civil rights of Americans. Some organizations such as the American Civil Liberties have raised concerns that fusion centers contravene the civil rights of Americans liberties in the process of getting information. The nature of sharing information allows for unclear lines of authority for supervision. With fusion centers, so many people have access to information that is otherwise a reserve for people with federal ties. Secondly, fusion centers utilize private sector intelligence which exposes state surveillance to abuse if extended to the private sector. The private sector is also likely to give federal agents information about their employees which infringes on their liberties on a daily basis. Other accusations facing Fusion centers are of following lawful citizen in lawful political and religious activities as reported by Government Affairs sub Committee investigations and echoed by ACLU (Barnosky, 2015). When fusion centers infringe on civil rights, then it invalidates the positive work that the fusion centers are doing.
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Fusion centers play a vital role in law enforcement, and hence there is a need to come up with policies that regulate concerns raised against them to make them more efficient and acceptable. One such strategy that implementable is securing fusion centers systems and instituting proper mechanisms for clearance for personnel before access to information. By establishing clear guidelines of authorization to access federal data than the likelihood to violate civil rights by exposing classified data will decrease. Secondly, some vital intelligence can be categorized and access granted to only top officials only to limit the number of personnel accessing information. State surveillance should be encrypted to avoid extension to private institutions unnecessarily (GAO, 2010) There are therefore several policies that can help manage incidences of fusion centers infringing on civil rights and hence allow fusion centers to play there role without criticism.
Collaborations happening through other forms of multiagency activities and fusion centers are entirely different. Fusion centers cooperation involves receiving, gathering, producing and analyzing information relating to terrorist threats and share the information with relevant agencies. Multi-agencies conduct counter-terrorism investigations for assessment and information shared with appropriate security agencies (Homeland Security, 2017). In conclusion, fusion centers are playing a significant role in detecting and analyzing terrorism threat. However, fusion centers are also facing various challenges and concerns which are resolvable with better policies. With proper measures put in place, fusion centers can deal with the concerns raised by various institutions and civic groups gaining credibility. Overall, fusion centers role has helped counter several challenges facing law enforcement in regard to the threat of terrorism and helped join dots that have broadened the knowledge base on terrorism patterns. Cooperation evident infusion centers create a platform for institutions pursuing the same objective to share information for the benefit of the society.
Reference
Barnosky, J. (2015). Fusion centers: What’s working and what isn’t. Brookings . Retrieved on 27 October 2017 from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2015/03/17/fusion-centers-whats-working-and-what-isnt/.
Homeland security. (2017). Fusion Centers and Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Retrieved on 27 October 2017, from https://www.dhs.gov/fusion-centers-and-joint-terrorism-task-forces.
GAO. (2010). Federal agencies are helping fusion centers build and sustain capabilities and protect privacy but could better measure results. U nites States Government Accountability Office . Retrieved on 27 October 2017 http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10972.pdf.
Lambert, D. (2010). Intelligence-led policing in a fusion center. Criminal Justice faculty Publications: Digital Commons . Retrieved on 27 October 2017 http://digitalcommons.newhaven.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=criminaljustice-facpubs.
