Fusion Centers are a fairly new concept in law enforcement, and many people don't know the purpose they serve or how their local law enforcement agency should be engaging these centers. If you ask 20 people for a definition of fusion center, you'll get 20 different answers. Some might even think these centers are making frozen coffee concoctions or protein drinks.
Fusion centers are an attempt to deal with the fact that clues related to criminal activity often remain undiscovered in disconnected law enforcement databases. These centers address that challenge by bringing the data into one place or making it accessible from one place, typically on one software platform where analysts can connect the dots.
Much of the rationale for developing these centers comes from the post-9/11 realization that we knew a lot about the terrorists, but the data points were scattered and didn't raise any red flags in isolation. Many agencies had a piece of the jigsaw puzzle but not enough to form a picture of a credible threat.
So in recent years, as a national grassroots initiative developed, in part, from a joint project with the federal intelligence community, including DHS and DOJ, about 50 of these fusion centers have been created across the United States. Each is staffed with personnel from multiple agencies that help facilitate local, state, county and federal data sharing.
While almost every fusion center has a slightly different mission, most people agree the goal is to bring a lot of data together to form a complete picture of criminal activity.
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