Developing a model fusion center to enhance information sharing

Abstract

Fusion Centers are in a unique position to provide the necessary collaborative space to bring the federal intelligence community together with state, local and tribal initiatives to support homeland security efforts at the grass roots level. Fusion Centers are described as a collaborative effort of two or more agencies to share, or more importantly, fuse information or data from multiple sources. Although, fusion centers have developed at different intervals, the U.S. Homeland Security has provided guiding documents to support fusion center maturation. This research examines these documents and proposed strategies incorporated into four proficient fusion centers in the Northeast Region of the United States to identify best or smart practices, success stories and areas for improvement. There has been a plethora of literature written concerning fusion centers since the tragedies of September 11, 2001. These categories of the literature include: official documents, guidelines and lessons learned for intelligence input, civil liberties safeguards and protections and literature dealing with the intelligence cycle and information sharing. The focus of this thesis is to examine correlation between the implementation of the current United States Homeland Security and U.S. Justice suggested Fusion Center Guidelines, and the employment of these guidelines in the successful development of a model fusion center.