Focus on fusion centers: a progress report: hearing before the Ad Hoc Subcommittee on State, Local

Original publisher: Washington : U.S. G.P.O., 2009. LC Number: KF26 .H637 2008a OCLC Number: (OCoLC)311579083 Subject: Terrorism -- United States -- Prevention. Excerpt: ... 11 tal. DHS has taken that fight with DOD, but we are still talking about it, a year after it was introduced to the center. The second thing I think we are really missing with the FBI, the FBI in Baltimore covers Baltimore and Delaware. They have about 200 agents in their office. We have just in the Baltimore metro area over 5,000 cops. They are starting an initiative where they are going to go out and look to try and develop sources on the street. We already have developed sources on the street that could benefit them. The problem is they still see the JTTF as information that should not be shared with the locals. And they can share it specifi-cally through the fusion centers so it does not get broadcast out to a number of people. But those are the issues I think we need to work on because I think we are missing some of the local components or the street-level components that need to go back into the Federal intelligence communities. Senator P. Some of that sounds a little cultural. RYOR Let me ask, Captain Rapp, a few practical questions about fusion centers. In a fusion center, who is the decisionmaker? If decisions have to be made and it is this shared environment, who actually has the final call? APP Mr. R. In our fusion center, which is maybe a little bit dif-ferent than the others, but, I mean, typical chain of command, the director would make the call if there is information that needs to get out. If there is a dispute between us and the Federal agencies, we also have the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council ( ATAC ) for the U.S. Attorney's Office. And we have a U.S. Attorney that sits as Chairman of that Council. So if it comes to butting heads between whether we disseminate information or not, or get it, we can al-ways use the U.S. Attorney as a neutral party to decide because they ar...