Cedar Park & Leander - Community Impact Newspaper

News Report | Austin Regional Intelligence Center
By Kelsey Wilkinson
Local police say Austin has
more than 2,000 active gang
members, and the city’s proximity
to the drug trade along the
Mexican border caused the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration
recently to designate Austin
as a High Intensity Drug Trafficking
Area.
“My sense, as
I talk to police,
is that Austin
has changed
rapidly in the
last 20 years,”
said Michael
Lauderdale, a
criminal justice
professor
at The University
of Texas
and chair of the
city’s public safety commission.
“Austin is much, much larger. It
has acquired serious problems in
terms of drugs in the community
and people engaged in moving
those drugs.”
The fear that drug-related violence
could make its way to Austin
is the key component that
influenced Lauderdale to support
the city’s decision to establish
the Austin Regional Intelligence
Center, also known as the
fusion center.
Information fused
The ARIC aims to prevent the
spread of that caliber of crime and
violence through data collection
and analysis. Operating under
the umbrella of the Department
of Homeland Security, it shares
data with local, state and federal
law enforcement agencies.
Lauderdale said a fusion center
would be crucial in situations
where law enforcement agencies
from different jurisdictions work
separately to solve crimes that
“If a fusion center was set
up, the flow of data would
happen more quickly.
Ordinarily, without a fusion
center, it would take weeks
to pull that data together.”
Learn from
the past
may be committed by the same
perpetrators—for instance, similar
burglaries that occur across
city or county lines.
“If a fusion center was set up,
the flow of data would happen
more quickly,” Lauderdale said.
“Ordinarily, without a fusion
center, it would take weeks to
pull that data
together.”
Local law
e n f o r c e m e n t
began pursuing
a fusion center
in 2008 when
Travis County
received Urban
Area Security
Initiative status
by the DHS. The
status identifies
counties with
significant security issues and
enables them to apply for Homeland
Security funds. In August
2009 the Austin City Council,
with those funds, approved the
center, which will be located in
a Department of Public Safety
building in north Austin. The
council will vote on the final
details of the center in late May.
The center is not yet operating,
but by as early as midsummer it
will be one of more than 70 working
fusion centers across the country
collecting data from financial,
health care, retail, energy, electronic
and education sectors.
Data overload
The breadth and ambiguity
of the center’s jurisdiction combined
with the amount, type and
speed of the data collected has
some groups worried.
“We can do all kinds of guessing
about what information
could impact public safety,” said
Chuck Young, founder of Texans
for Accountable Government, a
—Michael Lauderdale
Criminal justice professor,
University of Texas
Confidential
In an effort to produce an intelligence center with
a good reputation, Austin Police Department Chief
of Staff David Carter said Austin is looking to other
centers to learn best practices. To view a draft of the
fusion center’s privacy policy, visit
more.impactnews.com/8002.
Operation goals for Austin Regional Intelligence Center:
• Establish a strong relationship with law enforcement partners
• Strive for public support with strong privacy
policy and government transparency
• Develop and become a national model for
efficient and effective training techniques
for employees
MAP
• Obtain strong executive leadership
W. Koening Ln.
N
N. Lamar Blvd.
group vocal in its opposition to
the center.
Young addressed the members
of the Public Safety Commission
at its April 5 meeting to express
his concerns over the type of data
allowed to be collected based on
vague wording in the fusion center’s
privacy policy.
“Other agencies used data collected
from things like consumer
cards to track salmonella outbreaks,”
Young said. “But I don’t
think it’s appropriate to channel
that type of data through a
fusion center.”
While Lauderdale supports the
establishment of the ARIC, he
remains cautious about how data
that runs through the center is
collected and dissected.
“If I assume you are a member
of a Mexican drug cartel because
you drink Corona instead of Budweiser,
that’s obviously an abuse
of the data,” Lauderdale said.
Part of the public safety commission’s
job will be to monitor
and assess the center’s operations
and how its data is analyzed.
Classified?
“[The fusion center] is not in
operation yet, so it hasn’t actively
violated any civil liberties,” said
Matt Simpson, a policy strategist
for American Civil Liberties
Union of Texas. “The concern
isn’t that the policies themselves
will violate our constitutional
civil liberties; it’s more of a concern
of the actors themselves.”
Once data is collected, local
law enforcement is then left
with the task of determining
how the data is analyzed and
who gets to see it. Other fusion
centers have already established
a record of coercion and
discrimination on the part of law
enforcement officials, said.
“Sometimes people think the
Fusion centers in Texas
fusion center is an investigative
center, but it’s not. It’s an analysis
center,” said David Carter,
Austin Police Department Chief
of Staff. “The people who will be
in the center are primarily crime
analysts who aren’t necessarily
police officers.”
Carter said individuals
involved with analyzing data will
receive specialized training, and
police officers who want access
to the information will have to
demonstrate that they have a significant
right to obtain it based
on an investigation.
“Even that information will
Community Impact Newspaper • impactnews.com May 2010 | 33
Intelligence center’s participating agencies
Federal, state and local agencies will collect, analyze and share information
obtained through the Austin Regional Intelligence Center with the goal of
preventing crime and terrorism in Central Texas. The Austin center would be
one of more than 70 fusion centers nationwide.
Williamson County
Sheriff’s Office
San Marcos Police
department
Federal agencies
Georgetown Police
department
Texas Fusion Center
Managed by the state’s Intelligence and
Counterterrorism Division, this fusion center supports
criminal investigation across Texas. Participating
agencies include the Texas Department of Criminal
Justice, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department,
Department of Homeland Security, Department
of the Treasury, Federal Bureau of Investigation,
Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration
and Customs Enforcement, and the Air and Army
National Guard. Visit www.txdps.state.tx.us/
IntelligenceCounterTerrorism.
North Central Texas Fusion System
The Dallas fusion center began operations in
February 2006 and shares information across a
16-county region in the metroplex. Visit
www.fusionsystem.us.
Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center
Located in the Houston Emergency Center, the
Houston fusion center shares information with other
police departments in the greater Houston area.
Hays County
Sheriff’s Office
Round Rock Police
department
AUSTIN REGIONAL
INTELLIGENCE
CENTER
Police Report
AISd
Travis County
Sheriff’s Office
State agencies
Pflugerville Police
department
University of Texas
Police department
Austin Police
department
Source:
Austin Police
Department
be tracked by the center to make
sure it is valid,” he said.
Weighing the risk
Despite a public that seems
inclined to root against the fusion
center, the city is proceeding with
its plans—a verdict based on the
idea that not to is risky.
“The majority of Austin gang
members are at street level,”
Carter said, as opposed to organized
crime rings. “But we do
know that when crime groups are
looking for folks to be involved
in trafficking, they reach out to
groups such as that.”
Thomas Ruocco, assistant
director of criminal investigations
for the Texas Department of
Public Safety, said Austin could
experience an increase in drug
crime in the future.
Until the center can be observed
in action, the city and some of its
groups may remain divided.
“Any time we talk about police
work, and criminal types of
things, and national intelligence,
there is a pendulum,” Lauderdale
said. “One side is crime control,
and all of us want to be free of
crime. But one of the things associated
with controlling crime is
the gathering of current and historical
information.”