Beyond Counterterrorism

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscilla M. Regan ◽  
Torin Monahan
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Fusion Center ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
Mission Creep ◽  
New Challenges

Decentralized organizational approaches to security provision introduce new challenges for controlling information-sharing practices, safeguarding civil liberties, and ensuring accountability. Department of Homeland Security “fusion centers,” and the multiple organizations and databases that are part of fusion centers, engender an environment in which information is migrating beyond original purposes of counterterrorism. Indeed, based on intensive qualitative research, the authors have found that fusion centers that were originally oriented toward “counterterrorism” have quickly broadened their scope to include all crimes, and those that began as “all crimes” have migrated only marginally to terrorism. This is the result of three quite predictable factors: fusion centers have to be valuable to their states, there is too little activity that is clearly terrorism related, and fusion center personnel have to use their time and skills constructively. Nonetheless, even if local policing needs are met through fusion-center funding and support, many of the activities of fusion-center analysts lend themselves to mission creep and violations of civil liberties.

scholarly journals The Rise of the Fusion-Intelligence Complex: A critique of political surveillance after 9/11

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Bolton Newkirk
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Social History ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
State Surveillance ◽  
Private Sector Organizations

This paper argues that 'fusion centers' are byproducts of the privatization of state surveillance and assaults on civil liberties, at least in the United States, the nation on which the research is based, with special focus on the recent case of the Maryland State Police spying scandal. In fusion centers, members of local, state, and federal police and intelligence units, as well as private-sector organizations, share information with each other by means of computerized technology and store it in databases. While the official purpose is to protect public safety, the practice of 'data-mining' and unclear lines of authority lead to fusion centers being unaccountable to the public and, hence, a threat to the democratic process. These conditions are encapsulated in the case of official espionage in the state of Maryland at least between 2004 and 2006. Drawing on official documents, the history of 'homeland security' since World War II and the characteristics of fusion centers, the Department of Homeland Security, and events in Maryland are surveyed. Working within the contexts of social history, surveillance theory, and political economy, this paper is grounded in the work of Beck, Churchill and Wall, Donner, Fuchs, Graham, Lyon, McCulloch and Pickering, and Monahan.

Current State of (Dis)Integration: Public Health and Fusion Centers

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cody Minks ◽  
Anke Richter
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Public Health Information

AbstractObjectiveResponding to large-scale public health emergencies relies heavily on planning and collaboration between law enforcement and public health officials. This study examines the current level of information sharing and integration between these domains by measuring the inclusion of public health in the law enforcement functions of fusion centers.MethodsSurvey of all fusion centers, with a 29.9% response rate.ResultsOnly one of the 23 responding fusion centers had true public health inclusion, a decrease from research conducted in 2007. Information sharing is primarily limited to information flowing out of the fusion center, with little public health information coming in. Most of the collaboration is done on a personal, informal, ad-hoc basis. There remains a large misunderstanding of roles, capabilities, and regulations by all parties (fusion centers and public health). The majority of the parties appear to be willing to work together, but there but there is no forward momentum to make these desires a reality. Funding and staffing issues seem to be the limiting factor for integration.ConclusionThese problems need to be urgently addressed to increase public health preparedness and enable a decisive and beneficial response to public health emergencies involving a homeland security response.

scholarly journals Mapping Interfacial Regimes of Control: A Qualitative Analysis of America’s Post-9/11 Security Technology Infrastructure

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-243
Author(s):  
Emma Knight ◽  
Alex Gekker
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
Analysis Software ◽  
Security Technology ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Data Analysis Software

Recent technological advancements in surveillance and data analysis software have drastically transformed how the United States manages its immigration and national security systems. In particular, an increased emphasis on information sharing and predictive threat modeling following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has prompted agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security to acquire powerful data analysis software from private sector vendors, including those in Silicon Valley. However, the impacts of these private sector technologies, especially in the context of privacy rights and civil liberties, are not yet fully understood. This article interrogates those potential impacts, particularly on the lives of immigrants, by analyzing the relational database system Investigative Case Management (ICM), which is used extensively by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track, manage, and enforce federal immigration policy. As a theoretical framework, the we use Benjamin Bratton’s concept of the “interfacial regime,” or the layered assemblages of interfaces that exist in modern networked ICT infrastructures. By conducting a document analysis, we attempt to visually situate ICM within the federal government’s larger interfacial regime that is composed by various intertwined databases both within and outside the government’s realm of management. Furthermore, we question and critique the role ICM plays in surveilling and governing the lives of immigrants and citizens alike.

scholarly journals Fusing Race: The Phobogenics of Racializing Surveillance

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-29
Author(s):  
Marnie Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Situational Awareness ◽  
Passive State ◽  
Fusion Center ◽  
Security Strategy ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
Intelligence System ◽  
Critical Scholarship ◽  
National Security Strategy ◽  
State Surveillance

This paper sets up a framework to assess how purportedly passive state surveillance comprises an infrastructure of active racialization. Frantz Fanon’s concept of “racial phobogenics,” or the process of making a raced body into an object of anxiety, can be useful for scholarship at the intersection of communication, race, data, security, policing, affect, and biopolitics. To read how local state surveillance justifies the aggregation of data by means of phobogenics, I analyzed 120 hours of field observations and conducted fourteen interviews from June 2017 to March 2018 in one US Homeland Security Fusion Center, part of the integrated intelligence system and national security strategy after 9/11. I argue that Fusion Centers’ use of “situational awareness,” the trained ability to know what is deemed “suspicious” in everyday life, fuses race or taxonomizes what is out of place and what is inflammatory according to nonconscious racializing affects. I therefore urge for a critical scholarship that attends to “prelogical rationality and affectivity” (Fanon 1986: 133) as exercises of power.

Surveillance and Public Space

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Hall
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Consumer Market ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
Peer Monitoring ◽  
Monitoring Applications

Current communications research takes up the political and ethical problems posed by new surveillance technologies in public space, ranging from biometric technologies adopted by state security apparatuses to self- and peer-monitoring applications for the consumer market. In addition to studies that examine new surveillance technologies, scholars are tracking intensive and extensive expansions of surveillance in the name of risk management. Much of the scholarship produced in the last 15 years looks at how the establishment and expansion of the Department of Homeland Security within the United States and its international counterparts have dramatically altered security, military, and legal practices and cultures. Within this context what were once science fiction dystopias have become funded research and development projects and institutionalized practices aimed at remote data collection and processing, including facial recognition technology and a variety of remote sensing devices. Private-public partnerships between companies like Google and Homeland Security fusion centers have made it possible to use GPS technology to network data that promises to help manage a variety of natural and man-made disasters.

E-Government Capabilities for 21st Century Security and Defense

2010 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Roy Ladner ◽  
Fred Petry ◽  
Frank McCreedy
Keyword(s):  
Web Services ◽  
National Security ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Department Of Defense ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Service Oriented Architectures ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Service Oriented

In this article we provide an overview of e-government as it pertains to national security and defense within the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). We discuss the adoption of Web services and service-oriented architectures to aid in information sharing and reduction of IT costs. We also discuss the networks on which services and resources are being deployed and explain the efforts being made to manage the infrastructure of available services. This article provides an overview of e-government for national security and defense and provides insight to current initiatives and future directions.

Electronic Government

2009 ◽  
pp. 13-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy Ladner
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Web Services ◽  
National Security ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Electronic Government ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Service Oriented Architectures ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Service Oriented

In this chapter we provide an overview of electronic government as it pertains to national security and defense within the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). We discuss the adoption of web services and service oriented architectures to aid in information sharing and reduction of Information Technology (IT) costs. We also discuss the networks on which services and resources are being deployed and explain the efforts being made to manage the infrastructure of available services. This chapter provides an overview of e-government for national security and defense and provides insight to current initiatives and future directions.

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