The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with state and local agencies to support a network of state and regional intelligence service centers, or fusion centers, designed to gather and share information and intelligence on potential threats.
In a presentation Thursday at the 2010 Industrial Fire, Safety & Security Expo in Houston, Mike Davis, an officer with the Houston Police Department's Criminal Intelligence Division, and John Hall, DHS intelligence liaison officer at the Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center, said sound information gathering begins with understanding the difference between the way investigators and intelligence-gatherers approach and use information.
While the fusion centers have a role in threat scenarios (the Houston Fusion Center got high marks in its participation in the 2009 NLE 09 terrorism-response exercise), day to day, they constitute a single contact point for reporting, logging and tracking suspicious activity.
There are 72 fusion centers in the U.S. The Houston center covers 13 counties stretching from Beaumont to Matagorda. Each center has a DHS liaison officer, like Hall, but the centers are under local jurisdictional control. Their role is to coordinate, analyze and disseminate information up, down and across federal, state, tribal local lines, Hall said, serving as points where the proverbial dots can be connected on a potential threat. As such, fusion center personnel work with local law enforcement and private sector security colleagues in guiding the collection of information that can be used in target hardening, attack prevention and attack response.
Assisting and training both private and public security organizations in creating a culture of is intelligence gathering and sharing is a fusion center mission. Since the goal of an investigation is an arrest and conviction, detectives tend to value information that can be used to achieve those aims, Davis said. Likewise, they are trained--correctly--to keep a tight hold on information and evidence gathered in an investigation because, if leaked, it could compromise the effort.
Hall, in fact, drew distinctions between the fusion centers and agencies such as the Joint Terrorism Task Force and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which indeed are investigative agencies.
Intelligence-gathering is more like scouting, said Davis. The objective is to observe, record and report back, not necessarily engage. Anything out-of-the-ordinary or "doesn't look right" should be reported. As an example, Davis told of a landlord, who upon inspecting an apartment property one day, noticed that one of the regular white apartment doors had been replaced with a heavy black metal slab that was padlocked. Wisely, he called police, who found the apartment contained explosives and bomb-making equipment.
Detection of a large-scale terrorist attack, Davis said, often requires piecing together small bits of information that when assembled, sound alarm bells. Private companies should document and report incidents of trespassing, surveillance and loitering in and around secure area and share video data. Already DHS has identified a number of "gateway" crimes to terrorism--such as thefts of power or phone company vans, burglary of shops selling professional uniforms, and stolen IDs, passport, badges and official documents. Even as they investigate these crimes locally, police departments and private security agencies are urged to contact fusion centers when these incidents occur because they may fit into something larger.
Even fire departments have a role, since they can be the first on the scene at a suspicious blaze. Lee reminded attendees that it was Filipino firefighters who uncovered Al Qaeda's Bojinka plot to blow up 12 trans-Pacific airliners in 1995 after responding to an explosion at what had been a secret bomb-making lab.
In a conversation with me after the presentation, Davis said the Houston Fusion Center uses a number of technology platforms for gathering and processing data from surveillance and intrusion detection systems. Security technology integration has a role, but Davis could not discuss specifics. "There are lots of platforms. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, which is why there are so many of them," he said.
During NLE 09, the Houston Fusion Center used Google Earth as its geographical information system, and was able to drill down to details of specific locations using other geographic software and building data that was layered on.
In a presentation Thursday at the 2010 Industrial Fire, Safety & Security Expo in Houston, Mike Davis, an officer with the Houston Police Department's Criminal Intelligence Division, and John Hall, DHS intelligence liaison officer at the Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center, said sound information gathering begins with understanding the difference between the way investigators and intelligence-gatherers approach and use information.
While the fusion centers have a role in threat scenarios (the Houston Fusion Center got high marks in its participation in the 2009 NLE 09 terrorism-response exercise), day to day, they constitute a single contact point for reporting, logging and tracking suspicious activity.
There are 72 fusion centers in the U.S. The Houston center covers 13 counties stretching from Beaumont to Matagorda. Each center has a DHS liaison officer, like Hall, but the centers are under local jurisdictional control. Their role is to coordinate, analyze and disseminate information up, down and across federal, state, tribal local lines, Hall said, serving as points where the proverbial dots can be connected on a potential threat. As such, fusion center personnel work with local law enforcement and private sector security colleagues in guiding the collection of information that can be used in target hardening, attack prevention and attack response.
Assisting and training both private and public security organizations in creating a culture of is intelligence gathering and sharing is a fusion center mission. Since the goal of an investigation is an arrest and conviction, detectives tend to value information that can be used to achieve those aims, Davis said. Likewise, they are trained--correctly--to keep a tight hold on information and evidence gathered in an investigation because, if leaked, it could compromise the effort.
Hall, in fact, drew distinctions between the fusion centers and agencies such as the Joint Terrorism Task Force and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which indeed are investigative agencies.
Intelligence-gathering is more like scouting, said Davis. The objective is to observe, record and report back, not necessarily engage. Anything out-of-the-ordinary or "doesn't look right" should be reported. As an example, Davis told of a landlord, who upon inspecting an apartment property one day, noticed that one of the regular white apartment doors had been replaced with a heavy black metal slab that was padlocked. Wisely, he called police, who found the apartment contained explosives and bomb-making equipment.
Detection of a large-scale terrorist attack, Davis said, often requires piecing together small bits of information that when assembled, sound alarm bells. Private companies should document and report incidents of trespassing, surveillance and loitering in and around secure area and share video data. Already DHS has identified a number of "gateway" crimes to terrorism--such as thefts of power or phone company vans, burglary of shops selling professional uniforms, and stolen IDs, passport, badges and official documents. Even as they investigate these crimes locally, police departments and private security agencies are urged to contact fusion centers when these incidents occur because they may fit into something larger.
Even fire departments have a role, since they can be the first on the scene at a suspicious blaze. Lee reminded attendees that it was Filipino firefighters who uncovered Al Qaeda's Bojinka plot to blow up 12 trans-Pacific airliners in 1995 after responding to an explosion at what had been a secret bomb-making lab.
In a conversation with me after the presentation, Davis said the Houston Fusion Center uses a number of technology platforms for gathering and processing data from surveillance and intrusion detection systems. Security technology integration has a role, but Davis could not discuss specifics. "There are lots of platforms. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, which is why there are so many of them," he said.
During NLE 09, the Houston Fusion Center used Google Earth as its geographical information system, and was able to drill down to details of specific locations using other geographic software and building data that was layered on.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is working with state and local agencies to support a network of state and regional intelligence service centers, or fusion centers, designed to gather and share information and intelligence on potential threats.
In a presentation Thursday at the 2010 Industrial Fire, Safety & Security Expo in Houston, Mike Davis, an officer with the Houston Police Department's Criminal Intelligence Division, and John Hall, DHS intelligence liaison officer at the Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center, said sound information gathering begins with understanding the difference between the way investigators and intelligence-gatherers approach and use information.
While the fusion centers have a role in threat scenarios (the Houston Fusion Center got high marks in its participation in the 2009 NLE 09 terrorism-response exercise), day to day, they constitute a single contact point for reporting, logging and tracking suspicious activity.
There are 72 fusion centers in the U.S. The Houston center covers 13 counties stretching from Beaumont to Matagorda. Each center has a DHS liaison officer, like Hall, but the centers are under local jurisdictional control. Their role is to coordinate, analyze and disseminate information up, down and across federal, state, tribal local lines, Hall said, serving as points where the proverbial dots can be connected on a potential threat. As such, fusion center personnel work with local law enforcement and private sector security colleagues in guiding the collection of information that can be used in target hardening, attack prevention and attack response.
Assisting and training both private and public security organizations in creating a culture of is intelligence gathering and sharing is a fusion center mission. Since the goal of an investigation is an arrest and conviction, detectives tend to value information that can be used to achieve those aims, Davis said. Likewise, they are trained--correctly--to keep a tight hold on information and evidence gathered in an investigation because, if leaked, it could compromise the effort.
Hall, in fact, drew distinctions between the fusion centers and agencies such as the Joint Terrorism Task Force and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which indeed are investigative agencies.
Intelligence-gathering is more like scouting, said Davis. The objective is to observe, record and report back, not necessarily engage. Anything out-of-the-ordinary or "doesn't look right" should be reported. As an example, Davis told of a landlord, who upon inspecting an apartment property one day, noticed that one of the regular white apartment doors had been replaced with a heavy black metal slab that was padlocked. Wisely, he called police, who found the apartment contained explosives and bomb-making equipment.
Detection of a large-scale terrorist attack, Davis said, often requires piecing together small bits of information that when assembled, sound alarm bells. Private companies should document and report incidents of trespassing, surveillance and loitering in and around secure area and share video data. Already DHS has identified a number of "gateway" crimes to terrorism--such as thefts of power or phone company vans, burglary of shops selling professional uniforms, and stolen IDs, passport, badges and official documents. Even as they investigate these crimes locally, police departments and private security agencies are urged to contact fusion centers when these incidents occur because they may fit into something larger.
Even fire departments have a role, since they can be the first on the scene at a suspicious blaze. Lee reminded attendees that it was Filipino firefighters who uncovered Al Qaeda's Bojinka plot to blow up 12 trans-Pacific airliners in 1995 after responding to an explosion at what had been a secret bomb-making lab.
In a conversation with me after the presentation, Davis said the Houston Fusion Center uses a number of technology platforms for gathering and processing data from surveillance and intrusion detection systems. Security technology integration has a role, but Davis could not discuss specifics. "There are lots of platforms. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, which is why there are so many of them," he said.
During NLE 09, the Houston Fusion Center used Google Earth as its geographical information system, and was able to drill down to details of specific locations using other geographic software and building data that was layered on.
In a presentation Thursday at the 2010 Industrial Fire, Safety & Security Expo in Houston, Mike Davis, an officer with the Houston Police Department's Criminal Intelligence Division, and John Hall, DHS intelligence liaison officer at the Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center, said sound information gathering begins with understanding the difference between the way investigators and intelligence-gatherers approach and use information.
While the fusion centers have a role in threat scenarios (the Houston Fusion Center got high marks in its participation in the 2009 NLE 09 terrorism-response exercise), day to day, they constitute a single contact point for reporting, logging and tracking suspicious activity.
There are 72 fusion centers in the U.S. The Houston center covers 13 counties stretching from Beaumont to Matagorda. Each center has a DHS liaison officer, like Hall, but the centers are under local jurisdictional control. Their role is to coordinate, analyze and disseminate information up, down and across federal, state, tribal local lines, Hall said, serving as points where the proverbial dots can be connected on a potential threat. As such, fusion center personnel work with local law enforcement and private sector security colleagues in guiding the collection of information that can be used in target hardening, attack prevention and attack response.
Assisting and training both private and public security organizations in creating a culture of is intelligence gathering and sharing is a fusion center mission. Since the goal of an investigation is an arrest and conviction, detectives tend to value information that can be used to achieve those aims, Davis said. Likewise, they are trained--correctly--to keep a tight hold on information and evidence gathered in an investigation because, if leaked, it could compromise the effort.
Hall, in fact, drew distinctions between the fusion centers and agencies such as the Joint Terrorism Task Force and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which indeed are investigative agencies.
Intelligence-gathering is more like scouting, said Davis. The objective is to observe, record and report back, not necessarily engage. Anything out-of-the-ordinary or "doesn't look right" should be reported. As an example, Davis told of a landlord, who upon inspecting an apartment property one day, noticed that one of the regular white apartment doors had been replaced with a heavy black metal slab that was padlocked. Wisely, he called police, who found the apartment contained explosives and bomb-making equipment.
Detection of a large-scale terrorist attack, Davis said, often requires piecing together small bits of information that when assembled, sound alarm bells. Private companies should document and report incidents of trespassing, surveillance and loitering in and around secure area and share video data. Already DHS has identified a number of "gateway" crimes to terrorism--such as thefts of power or phone company vans, burglary of shops selling professional uniforms, and stolen IDs, passport, badges and official documents. Even as they investigate these crimes locally, police departments and private security agencies are urged to contact fusion centers when these incidents occur because they may fit into something larger.
Even fire departments have a role, since they can be the first on the scene at a suspicious blaze. Lee reminded attendees that it was Filipino firefighters who uncovered Al Qaeda's Bojinka plot to blow up 12 trans-Pacific airliners in 1995 after responding to an explosion at what had been a secret bomb-making lab.
In a conversation with me after the presentation, Davis said the Houston Fusion Center uses a number of technology platforms for gathering and processing data from surveillance and intrusion detection systems. Security technology integration has a role, but Davis could not discuss specifics. "There are lots of platforms. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, which is why there are so many of them," he said.
During NLE 09, the Houston Fusion Center used Google Earth as its geographical information system, and was able to drill down to details of specific locations using other geographic software and building data that was layered on.
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