Attacks Put Spotlight on Boston Counterterrorism Center

April 16, 2013, 5:50 PM ET




Joel Schectman
Reporter

Boston’s Regional Intelligence Center is poised to aid investigators as they search for suspects in yesterday’s bombing.

The center is one of America’s 77 intelligence-sharing facilities, known as fusion centers, that allow investigators to pool data from local, state and federal sources. The state-run centers were funded by the Department of Homeland Security in the years after 9/11 to address the lack of information sharing among agencies, an issue cited as a factor in the government’s failure to prevent the 2001 attacks.

As investigators attempt to connect the dots in yesterday’s attack, Boston’s fusion center will allow authorities to tap thousands of law enforcement data sources, along with public data like information from credit agencies, said Mike Sena, president of the National Fusion Center Association, and a state commander of the Northern California Regional Intelligence Center. “This is what fusion centers were built for,” Mr. Sena said.

Boston’s fusion center can help investigators scour for connections among potential suspects, by mining hundreds of law enforcement sources around the region, ranging from traffic violations, to jail records and criminal histories, along with public data like property records, Mr. Sena said. As the investigation widens, and investigators identify suspects, the system can help lead authorities to co-conspirators. For example, the system could flag a possible associate of the suspect by finding a past traffic ticket issued to someone driving the perpetrator’s car.

The system also allows local investigators to access the federal Homeland Secure Data Network, giving screened personnel access to classified reports from federal agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Sena said.

The fusion center system has its shortcomings, however. Despite their strengths, fusion centers are hampered by the kinds of data silo issues that are familiar to any CIO of a large company, according to Mr. Sena.

For example, while authorities can access an array of data sources from their own state, data collected in fusion centers in other states cannot be automatically accessed–that information needs to be requested and manually uploaded. And interoperability issues that stem from a multiplicity of proprietary search tools—as well as police record systems built by different vendors–means even information from within California’s 70 data systems, often has to be reformatted before it can be pooled and analyzed, slowing investigations, Mr. Sena said. And for security reasons, classified reports from federal agencies cannot be accessed on the same machines, Mr. Sena said. “Not being able to pull that data together is a huge problem,” Mr. Sena said. “When you are dealing with having to pull in information from 70 systems you can never be that speedy and time is of the essence with real time crime support and investigation.”

Last year, the Senate subcommittee on investigations released a report questioning the effectiveness of the centers in fighting terrorism and protecting privacy.

Still, without the fusion centers, investigators would need to physically pull paper records from dozens of sources, and would need to obtain federal reports through a lengthy request process, Mr. Sena said. “It gives investigators access to an array of data they would not even know about otherwise — it would be stovepiped away.”

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