Improving intelligence development and sharing, not only on the federal but on the state and local levels, has emerged as a key component of the Obama administration homeland security strategy. 

The president’s fiscal 2010 budget provides a significant boost in funding to support efforts to improve information and intelligence sharing among state, local and federal authorities. 

Addressing over a thousand federal, state and local officials attending the third annual National Fusion Center Conference in Kansas City this week DHS secretary Napolitano pledged that efforts to extend and upgrade “fusion centers”, state and major city facilities that enable federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments and the owners and operators of critical infrastructure to share information and intelligence about terrorist threats, criminal activity and other hazards, would be a high-priority goal of DHS during her tenure. 

"At the Department of Homeland Security, information and intelligence sharing is a top priority and fusion centers play an important role in helping to make that happen," said Secretary Napolitano. "In the world we live in today, it’s critical for federal, state, local and tribal entities to know what the others are doing so each can operate effectively and efficiently." 

Though fusion centers have been criticized as a potential threat to civil liberties and privacy, Napolitano acknowledged, she insisted that the centers were neither designed , nor will they be allowed to become, “ domestic spy agencies.” “They are not designed to invade the privacy of American citizens,” said Ms. Napolitano. The mandate of fusion centers, Ms. Napolitano explained, is not to launch independent domestic surveillance operations but rather to better connect the dots between lawfully obtained information that already exists in fragmented “siloed” databases. 

“We are here because we did not have the capacity to connect the dots on various bits of information prior to 9/11,” Napolitano said, calling fusion centers “the front line of law enforcement.” 

Russell Porter, director of the Iowa Intelligence Fusion Center and chair of the Association of Law Enforcement Intelligence Units and of the Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council, expanded upon Ms. Napolitano’s point in his remarks to the conference. "In this post 9/11 era,” Porter said, “ it takes a network to defeat a network. Our national integrated network of fusion centers helps us protect our communities and our country by sharing information and intelligence more effectively, while fulfilling our solemn obligation to uphold constitutional rights and liberties as the public expects and deserves." 

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert S. Mueller III, who also attended the conference, declared the bureau’s active support for the programs, "Fusion centers build upon the FBI's tradition of strong partnerships with our federal, state, local, and tribal counterparts and maximize our ability to detect, prevent, and investigate criminal and terrorist activities," Mueller said. 

Since the fusion center initiative began in 2006, states and major cities have stood up some 70 centers across the country, with the federal government providing personnel, financial and technical support. While Napolitano said it was too soon to predict the ultimate scale of fusion centers nationwide, she expressed confidence fusion center initiatives would become more widespread over the coming years.