DHS Fusion Centers Show the Hazards

The revelations of the NSA’s phone and email surveillance just came out two weeks ago.  However, they are certainly not the first that we have heard of the US government monitoring its citizens’ activities.  In “The future of security? Surveillance operations at homeland security fusion centers”, Torin Monahan details the history of so called “fusion centers”, operated by the Department of Homeland Security.  These centers are partnerships between local police, the FBI, and the DHS.  According to Monahan, they conduct “surveillance of abstract data [which] may be perceived as being less intrusive and less threatening than are video cameras, wiretaps, or other technologies that are traditionally associated with surveillance” (Monahan 8).  That is, the centers do not necessarily listen in on people’s conversations.  However, they collect and store a huge amount of abstract data about those conversations and other interactions.  They can then organize that data and “paint a disturbingly fine-grained representation of individuals, their associations, preferences, and risks” (Monahan 8).  This is strikingly similar to the NSA’s collection of “metadata” about phone records.

Yet the fusion centers have been around for a while.  The first was established in 1996 in Los Angeles, with many more being formed after 2004 (Monahan 4).  The Obama administration has continued the expansion of this program.

The secrecy of these joint operations has led to abuses.  According to Monahan, “Fusion centers have also been implicated in scandals involving covert infiltrations of nonviolent groups, including peace-activist groups, anti-death penalty groups, animal-rights groups, Green Party groups, and others” (Monahan 15).  In many cases, there was no particular reason to target these groups other than the bias of the investigators.  Yet the investigation has the power to paint the target as a terrorist.  If we bring these investigations to light, we can start to put an end to the abuses and correct the wrongs they perpetrated. 

Similarly, the US government should not be so secretive about the NSA’s surveillance programs.  We need to know that any information collected and stored about Americans will only be used for legitimate criminal investigations.  The government also has to respect its citizens’ rights to freely associate with others.

Works cited:

Monahan, Torin. "The future of security? Surveillance operations at homeland security fusion centers." Social Justice 37.2-3 (2010): 84+. Academic OneFile. Web. 20 June 2013.