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Background
"Fusion centers" are a means of bringing together information from distributed sources for thepurpose of collection, retention, analysis, and dissemination. The term "fusion center," seems tohave originated from the Department of Defense (DOD,) and refers to the fusing of informationfor analysis purposes. On November 9, 2002, the New York Times disclosed a massive DODfusion center project managed by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA)known as Total Information Awareness (TIA).DARPA was developing a tracking system intended to attempt to detect terrorists through analyzing troves of information.The project called for the development of "revolutionary technology for ultra-large all-sourceinformation repositories," which would contain information from multiple sources to create a"virtual, centralized, grand database." This database would be populated by transaction datacontained in current databases such as financial records, medical records, communicationrecords, and travel records as well as new sources of information. Also fed into the databasewould be intelligence data.A key component of the TIA project was headed by Admiral John Poindexter,former National Security Advisor to President Reagan. TIA was to develop data-mining or knowledge discoverytools that would sort through the massive amounts of information to find patterns andassociations. TIA would also develop search tools such as Project Genoa, which AdmiralPoindexter's employer, prior to his return to the federal government, Syntek Technologiesassisted in developing. TIA aimed to fund the development of more such tools and data-miningtechnology to help analysts understand and even "preempt" future action.A further crucial component was the development of biometric technology to enable theidentification and tracking of individuals. DARPA had already funded its"Human ID at aDistance"program, which aimed to positively identify people from a distance throughtechnologies such as face recognition or gait recognition.In August 2002, the International Association of Chiefs of Police released the recommendations  of its Criminal Intelligence Summit held March 7-8, 2002, with the final document coming fromthe DOJ's office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). The report acknowledgedthat the problems identified following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were found to bewith "intelligence exchange between national agencies..." Then the report quickly endorsed thecreation of a Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council to implement the National IntelligencePlan that would engage local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in a database sharingenvironment. The plan addressed the legal impediments to the effective transfer of criminalintelligence between authorized local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. This planbecame the superstructure for the next domestic Fusion Center effort by advocating for thecreation of the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council and charged it with accomplishing anumber of goals:
"Ensure compatible policy standards, guidelines and operating procedures in the further development and integration of existing intelligence sharing systems (including standards for thecollection, analysis, dissemination, storage and purging of information); create standards for 
 
 participation in the Council and coordinated intelligence network; promulgate standards and guidelines; publicize and enforce sanctions for the misuse of information from the coordinated network... Create a funding plan ...eliminate barriers in...laws and polices that limit intelligencesharing..."
 The Criminal Intelligence Summit participants stressed the need to not limit the data sharing toterrorism or terrorist related activity, but to extend it to all criminal intelligence under the generalheading of "Intelligence-Led Policing." Criminal intelligence was defined as "the combination of credible information with quality analysis--information that has been evaluated and from whichconclusions have been drawn." The report supported the expanding of the information's sharingdatabase effort to be extended to court records, emergency management personnel, and"specialized security forces of particular situation-relevant intelligence."The plan to overcome barriers to intelligence sharing included the following:
"The hierarchy within the law enforcement and intelligence communities. In some cases real and in others only perceived, the hierarchical organization of law enforcement and intelligenceagencies (with federal agencies being at the top of the pyramid and local, state, county, and Tribal agencies further down) leads to organizational incentives against intelligence sharing and even anti-sharing cultures. At best, the disaggregation of activity means that managers in oneagency might not imagine that others would find their intelligence data useful. At worst, thestructure creates an us versus them mentality that stands in the way of productive collaboration."
 A key goal of the proposal establishes the need to "[c]reate a marketing strategy to increasestakeholder participation in the intelligence sharing process and conduct public education topromote acceptance of the system overall."In September 2003, Congress eliminated funding for the controversial TIA project and closed thePentagon's Information Awareness Office, which had developed TIA. It was not believed tosignal the end of other government data-mining initiatives that are similar to TIA. Projects suchas the Novel Intelligence from Massive Data within the Intelligence Community AdvancedResearch and Development Activity (ARDA) moved forward. The FBI and the TransportationSecurity Administration were also working on data-mining projects that fused commercialdatabases, public databases, and intelligence data and had meetings with TIA developers.In October 2003, the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan was published by the Justice Department's project the Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative ("Global"). The report states that 75% of the law enforcement agencies within the United States have less than 24 swornofficers. The report's goal is to provide these small law enforcement agencies with the sameability as big city, state, and federal law enforcement offices to develop, gather, access, receive,and share intelligence information.
"The need to increase availability of information, from classified systems to local and state lawenforcement agencies, for the prevention and investigation of crime in their jurisdictions...Theneed to identify an intelligence information sharing capability that can be widely accessed bylocal, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement and public safety agencies."
 
 
The proposal recommended the establishment of a Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council(CICC or Council) composed of local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement executives.TheCouncil was recommended to operate under the direction of the Global Advisory Committee and would be charged with monitoring the implementation of the National Intelligence Sharing Plan.  A few members of the Global Advisory Committee include: Administrative Office of the US Courts, American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, American Corrections Association, American Probation and Parole Association, Conference of State Court Administrators, Executive Offices for US Attorneys, FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division, International Association of Chiefs of Police, INTERPOL - USNCB, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges,  National District Attorneys Association, National Governors Association, National Legal Aid and Defender Association, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice -- Justice Management Division,and the US Drug Enforcement Agency.  The report also moved the goal to not just involve law enforcement, the courts, and emergencymanagement databases, but to extend its reach to private entities.During this same period of time, another fusion center initiative came under public scrutiny inthe National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Plan as a data warehouse--the Multi-state Anti- Terrorism Information Exchange (MATRIX) project which acted as a prototype database systemrun by the State of Florida and Seisint, a private company. Built by a consortium of state lawenforcement agencies, MATRIX proposed to combine public records and private record datafrom multiple databases with data analysis tools. MATRIX was established with the assistance of the Institute for Intergovernmental Researchís Global Justice Information Sharing Initiative. Theprogram collapsed when it was disclosed to the public, and states were pressured by residents towithdraw from the program.In March 2004, the MATRIX project was on its last gasp, when the states of New York andWisconsin withdrew their participation in the project. By May 14, 2004, the CriminalIntelligence Coordinating Council proposed by the National Criminal Intelligence Sharing Planbecame an official project of the Department of Justice.
Latest Government Information Fusion Center Initiative
May 2004, the Department of Justice announced its progress in implementing the NationalCriminal Intelligence Sharing Plan.The announcement made public the decision to create aCriminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC) that would be managed by Global.By December 2004, the push for a national Fusion Center initiative received a boost when theDepartment of Justice sponsored Global Infrastructure/Standards Working Group published A Framework for Justice Information Sharing: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). States usinglocal, state, and federal funds created information Fusion Centers. In August 2005, Global  published the Fusion Center Guidelines 
The principal role of the fusion center is to compile, analyze, and disseminate criminal/terrorist information and intelligence and other information (including, but not limited to, threat, publicsafety, law enforcement, public health, social services, and public works) to support efforts to
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