From CNSnews.com article today: you can read it here: http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/napolitano-warns-police-chiefs-about-evo
According to the DHS Web site, “State and major urban fusion centers serve as focal points within the state and local environment for the receipt, analysis, gathering, and sharing of threat-related information between the federal government and state, local, tribal, territorial (SLTT) and private sector partners.”
“Located in states and major urban areas throughout the country, fusion centers are uniquely situated to empower front-line law enforcement, public safety, fire service, emergency response, public health, CIKR protection, and private sector security personnel to understand local implications of national intelligence, thus enabling local officials to better protect their communities,” according to DHS.
“We have now established baseline criteria for all fusion centers,” Napolitano told the IACP. “We have now surveyed all fusion centers to see whether they meet that baseline criterion.”
“What they are designed to do is to facilitate the information gathering and sharing process back and forth as I described for terrorism, tactics, techniques, [and] behaviors,” she said, “but also other crimes, trans-national crime in particular. And we also have found that you can use them for other hazards as well,” such as pandemics and industrial accidents, she added.
My question is, what a “fusion center”?
HTH
A fusion center is a terrorism prevention and response center, many of which were created under a joint project between the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs between 2003 and 2007.
The fusion centers gather information not only from government sources, but also from their partners in the private sector.[1][2]
They are designed to promote information sharing at the federal level between agencies such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Justice, US Military and state and local level government. As of July 2009[update], the Department of Homeland Security recognized at least seventy-two fusion centers.[3] Fusion centers may also be affiliated with an Emergency Operations Center that responds in the event of a disaster.
State and local police departments provide both space and resources for the majority of fusion centers. The analysts working there can be drawn from DHS, local police, or the private sector. A number of fusion centers operate tip hotlines and also invite relevant information from public employees, such as sanitation workers or firefighters.[4]