Fusion centers gather terrorism intelligence – and much more

About a year ago, a police officer in Maryland noticed a truck loaded with plastic pallets driving down a main road in the early morning. He normally wouldn't have given it a second look, but the officer had seen a bulletin from the state's "coordination and analysis center" advising that such thefts were costing bakeries and grocers hundreds of thousands of dollars. Sure enough, the pallets were stolen. Cracking down on pallet thieves wasn't quite the mission envisioned for "fusion centers," 72 facilities across the country that were started after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks to improve information-sharing and threat analysis among local law enforcement.

The centers, which have received $426 million in federal funding since 2004, were designed as an early warning system against the next attack. Lately, amid the recent uptick in homegrown plots, the Homeland Security Department has been touting fusion centers as a means of thwarting domestic terrorism. But it turns out that homegrown terrorism pales in frequency and fatalities compared with typical street crime, so many of the centers have begun collecting and distributing criminal intelligence, even of the most mundane kind.

In the process, Homeland Security Department officials say, the centers are developing a system to receive, sort and share crucial information. And they say it's too soon to judge the program, which is likely to grow in importance as a tool in detecting terrorism before it erupts. "I'm a big supporter because of their potential," said Mohamed Elibiary, a Texas-based Muslim activist who advises the Homeland Security Department, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. "If you want the government to function effectively, you need proper information sharing and analysis."

Critics argue that the centers are another potential intrusion on citizens' rights, and that having 72 of them guarantees bureaucratic overkill. Many centers make extensive use of private contractors. And the methods used are inconsistent from one to the next, raising questions about whether some of them are performing vital work. "We thought if we just threw the name out there, built a bunch of them, we'd feel a lot better," former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said this month at George Washington University. "And I frankly think there's too many of them. We still don't have quite the protocol we need to make sure that they're effective."

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Analyst Skills: Timeliness, Part 2

"One of the biggest obstacles to creating effective competitive intelligence is the timeliness of the data. If intelligence is not available at the moment of need, it does little good. And the value deteriorates quickly after the decision for which it was generated has been made. In other words, intelligence should be present before decisions are made as often as possible."
-Christopher Dalley

Time Management Tips 6-11

6) Prioritize ruthlessly.

You should start each day with a time management session prioritizing the tasks for that day and setting your performance benchmark. If you have 20 tasks for a given day, how many of them do you truly need to accomplish? For more on daily planning and prioritizing daily tasks, see Start The Day Right With Daily Planning.

7) Learn to delegate and/or outsource.

No matter how small your operation is, there's no need for you to be a one-person show. For effective time management, you need to let other people carry some of the load. Determining Your Personal ROI explains two ways to pinpoint which tasks you'd be better off delegating or outsourcing, while Decide To Delegate provides tips for actually getting on with the job of delegating.

8) Establish routines and stick to them as much as possible.

While crises will arise, you'll be much more productive if you can follow routines most of the time.

9) Get in the habit of setting time limits for tasks.

For instance, reading and answering email can consume your whole day if you let it. Instead, set a limit of one hour a day for this task and stick to it.

10) Be sure your systems are organized.

Are you wasting a lot of time looking for files on your computer? Take the time to organize a file management system. Is your filing system slowing you down? Redo it, so it's organized to the point that you can quickly lay your hands on what you need. You'll find more information about setting up filing systems and handling data efficiently in my Data Management library.

11) Don't waste time waiting.

From client meetings to dentist appointments, it's impossible to avoid waiting for someone or something. But you don't need to just sit there and twiddle your thumbs. Always take something to do with you, such as a report you need to read, a checkbook that needs to be balanced, or just a blank pad of paper that you can use to plan your next marketing campaign. Technology makes it easy to work wherever you are; your PDA and/or cell phone will help you stay connected.

You can be in control and accomplish what you want to accomplish - once you've come to grips with the time management myth and taken control of your time.

Source: About.com: Small Business Canada - 11 Time Management Tips

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Australian Federal Police International Intelligence Program

For intelligence practitioners in the Asia-Pacific region, the Leadership in Criminal Intelligence Program (LCIP), instituted by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), has reached a milestone with its first international participant graduating from the Intelligence Management Development Program (IMDP). At a recent ceremony held at the Australian Embassy in Beijing, Deputy Director of the Public Security Research Institute Sheng An Wang (Sam) said he was very honoured to be the first international participant to be granted the Graduate Certificate in Applied Management of IMDP.

“All the teachers were very experienced in the subjects they were presenting. We gained enormous insight of the role of intelligence in the development of new ideas to meet our new challenges and the managing of our complex environment.”

Mr Wang joins a select group of 18 who have graduated from IMDP since its inception in 2006. The program operates on a mix of residential and distance education. To date six intakes with a total of 118 participants representing 18 countries and 31 different agencies have passed through its doors.

• “First International Graduates from Intelligence Program”, Platypus Magazine, AFP, October 2008 issue.
• "Law Enforcement Intelligence", Training for International Law Agencies, AFP.
  

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Terrorism Monitor Volume 7 Issue 18

For those of you working in counter-terrorism intelligence, the Jamestown Foundation publishes a weekly Terrorism Monitor bulletin. This bulletin outlines the events that have taken place worldwide that centers on terrorism and terror networks. It is very useful for situational awareness.

The mission of the Jamestown Foundation is to inform and educate policy makers and the broader policy community about events and trends in those societies which are strategically or tactically important to the United States and which frequently restrict access to such information. Utilizing indigenous and primary sources, Jamestown’s material is delivered without political bias, filter or agenda. It is often the only source of information which should be, but is not always, available through official or intelligence channels, especially in regard to Eurasia and terrorism.

To read (and later download) the PDF version of the Terrorism Monitor V7 I18, please click here.

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The Foundation: Intelligence-led Policing (ILP)

One result of the changes in our society is that today’s criminals are displaying increased sophistication and operational agility in their efforts to subvert law and order. This in turn has created a need for law enforcement agencies – at all levels – to concentrate their collective efforts in a more structured manner and to modernize the various business processes they use to determine resource allocations. Experience suggests that the optimum way to achieve these goals is through a new series of processes and procedures called Intelligence-Led Policing. Intelligence-led policing is an extremely useful way of thinking about law enforcement and delivery of police services. ILP is all about providing decision-makers at any level of a law enforcement organization with the intelligence and analysis upon which to base good decisions.

Intelligence-led policing is both a business model and managerial philosophy. Crime analysis and criminal intelligence are the foundations to an objective, decision-making framework that facilitates crime and problem reduction, disruption and prevention through both strategic management and effective enforcement strategies that target prolific and serious offenders.

Intelligence-led policing was originally thought of as a law enforcement strategy seeking to reduce crime through the combined use of crime analysis and criminal intelligence. The purpose was to determine appropriate crime reduction tactics that concentrate on the prevention and enforcement of criminal offender activity, with a focus on active recidivists.

This approach emphasized information gathering through the extensive use of confidential informants, offender interviews, analysis of recorded crime and calls for service, surveillance of suspects, and community sources of information. These sources were analyzed so that law enforcement managers could determine objective policing tactics in regard to enforcement targets, prevention activities and further intelligence gathering operations.

In the last few years, the interpretation of 'intelligence-led policing' appears to be broadening in scope. While still retaining the central notion that police should avoid getting bogged down in reactive, individual, case investigations, intelligence-led policing is evolving into a management philosophy that places greater emphasis on information-sharing and collaborative, strategic solutions to crime problems at the local and regional level.

Originating in the United Kingdom, intelligence-led policing began with the idea that police were spending too much time responding to crime and too little time targeting offenders. Audit reports encouraged increased use of intelligence, surveillance and informants to target recidivist offenders so that police could be more effective in fighting crime. Since then, ILP and its practice has extended to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and since September 11th, 2001, the United States.

However, ILP will never reach its true potential unless all police, law enforcement and public safety leaders catch the vision of this important paradigm. Intelligence-led policing is a model that has gained significant acceptance in the United States since 9/11. There is a good reason for this: no other single approach can offer the same protection in the current worldwide environment of crime, terrorism and the explosion of information. More importantly, in its wider application ILP works well with other models and enhances them by providing a foundation of analysis. Whatever policing approach that is adopted locally, ILP can make it work better. It does so by providing the intelligence and information on which to more accurately base decisions about any given problem or situation.

Links for further information on Intelligence-led Policing:

• IALEIA. Intelligence-led Policing: Getting Started.
  
• Colonel Joseph R. Fuentes. Practical Guide to Intelligence-led Policing. New Jersey State Police.
• Marilyn Peterson. Intelligence-led Policing: The New Intelligence Architecture. Bureau of Justice Assistance.
• Angus Smith (ed). Intelligence-led Policing: International Perspectives on Policing in the 21st Century. IALEIA.
• Nick Tilley & Jill Dando. Problem-Oriented Policing, Intelligence-Led Policing and the National Intelligence Model. University College London.
• Association of Chief Police Officers. Practice Advice: Introduction to Intelligence-Led Policing. National Centre for Policing Excellence.
• Jerry H. Ratcliffe. Intelligence-led Policing. Australian Institute of Criminology.
  

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