Why we are here today is about the future of Fusion Centers and let me begin with this fundamental: I believe that Fusion Centers will be the centerpiece of state, local, federal intelligence-sharing for the future and that the Department of Homeland Security will be working and aiming its programs to underlie Fusion Centers.
I also believe, however, that that means several things beyond just saying it’s going to be a centerpiece. First, that we need to be looking at information-sharing in some fundamentally different ways, that it’s not just about sharing a fact or a report but that we have the capacity within our Fusion Centers not only to gather information at the local level but to analyze that information and convert what might be seemingly isolated bits of data into a product that can show whether things are happening at a state or local level that implicate greater concerns.
I think to do that requires us at the federal level in our organizational strategy to make clear that Fusion Centers are not just about isolated information-sharing, but they really are about taking information gathered at the state and local level and putting it into an analytical product that can be used at the federal level and that the federal law enforcement agencies are sharing the reverse at the state and local as much as can be done.
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Lastly, let’s think about Fusion Centers in a way as a place where we have—the phrase I’ll use is “collaborative space.” The opportunity not just to share information across different departments, you know, the city police department with the county sheriff with the local DHS ICE
person with somebody from the FBI , not just at that level, but as a place to share information across disparate disciplines, law enforcement, fire, public health, emergency management, critical infrastructure protection, and when you think about it as a place in that collaborative space, then the earlier point I made about the kinds of partners we need to have in there really ties into that because then you need to have partners from all of those sorts of disciplines.
And by the way, let’s not forget the private sector when we’re looking at those partnerships. They can be a vital part of this as well, and also provide vital support for the sustainability of Fusion Centers as we move forward.
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Secretary Napolitano: Well, I don’t know if it’s a philosophy. I can give you dollars that have been expended and I can tell you, for example, that we have installed the Homeland Secure Data Network in some 29 or so Fusion Centers. That has gotten a good response.
I can tell you that we have provided $327 million in direct funding to Fusion Centers, another 812 million for broader information-sharing which includes other types of technologies. So I can share with you that kind of nuts and bolts.
But if you want to reduce it to a matter of philosophy, there’s—there’s a difference to me between merely passing on something and passing on useful information that can be and should be acted upon and that the goal I’m trying to get us to and get you thinking about in this room is whether you’ve simply been passing on things or whether you’ve been really thinking through and analyzing data to the point where it’s knowledge that should be passed on and acted upon, and that requires more than machinery and more than databases. It really requires something that can never be replaced and that’s brainpower assisted by education and training and then we have to have, for those who have that kind of capabilities, we need to make sure we hire them, we train them, we pay them and we keep them, and so looking at the sustainability of the personnel that really have to be the—the fundamentals of these Fusion Centers is going to be key for us.
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Secretary Napolitano: Yeah. I think the role of the private sector actually is like Fusion Centers, and it’s an evolving thought, because normally the private sector was not included in—in kind of law enforcement thinking or intelligence thinking, but when we are thinking about the Fusion Center, which has a much larger role in a way than a JTTF, private sector partners are key. They—they can help in terms of sharing of information. They certainly are essential in terms of response and recovery and they need to be prepared and trained and co-located to do that, and then, you know, there’s a huge element of getting to know your private sector partners and, you know, getting to know the people at your local utility that may have been totally disabled by anything from a terrorist attack to an ice storm who need—and what they will need to do and how they will need to do it to get up and running again, getting to know your healthcare providers on the private side who may need to be employed should you be dealing with anything from a biological weapon of mass destruction to—to a pandemic or another type of epidemic-type situation and so part of that is going to require thinking through on an analytical basis, well, who are the private sector partners we really need and who needs to be included within the concept of our fusion?
But a second aspect is educating the private sector about what we are and what we do and by doing that education building a greater public support for Fusion Centers, for their existence, for their sustainability, for their political viability over time, that sort of thing. So it’s really two ways.
http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/speeches/sp_1236975404263.shtm
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