State fusion centers look to expand beyond counterterrorism efforts

• Mar 12, 2010

The Global XML model was expanded with the development of the National Information Exchange Model, first released in 2006. Like Global XML, NIEM — developed jointly by Justice and DHS — is based on XML schemas for structuring data. But NIEM was designed to accommodate other sectors in addition to law enforcement.

“I do think that NIEM is the answer,” Serrao said. “It is certainly being used at all levels, from local law enforcement to state, county and regional.”

The federal government has pushed the adoption of NIEM by requiring most grant recipients to incorporate the model. And that has pushed NIEM into the private sector. “Now you’re beginning to see private-sector companies begin to incorporate those very standards into the products they produce,” said Gerry Wethington, vice president of homeland security, justice and public safety at Unisys.

Whose Data Is It?

An even more challenging problem for most data centers has been the management of data authority — that is, who controls the data when it is shared.

“There is a known issue of the loss of control of data once it leaves your domain,” said Shawn McCarthy, an analyst at IDC’s consulting group and a GCN columnist. “Once you start sharing data and it leaves your facility, data authority is difficult to establish.”

McCarthy said that although the federal government is experienced at maintaining authority over data it releases, many state and local agencies are not so adept. “The upstream piece — when it comes from state and local up to the federal government — is very fragmented,” he said. “Some states and large cities are very good at it. Some small towns and counties are not there yet.”

Mike Bosacker, commander of the Minnesota Joint Analysis Center, said data authority is an ongoing challenge for the center.

The first challenge is ensuring the accuracy of data. “The preferred method is that everything comes through a law enforcement agency,” Bosacker said. “Then it’s law enforcement data, and it has been vetted by a local agency. We do not take direct public reporting. If we get a report from some piece of critical infrastructure, we’ll reach out to the appropriate local law enforcement [agency] to make sure they are taking a report.”

But retaining control of the data also can be difficult. Bosacker said that in Minnesota, all data that is not part of an active law enforcement investigation is public information by law. That means that when the analysis center gets a request for data, staff members must check to see if the information is part of an active investigation. If it is, the center can only release the information to another law enforcement organization and not, say, to a fire department, unless there is a need to know.

However, Minnesota laws do allow active case data to be released to other law enforcement agencies even if they are out of state, and Bosacker said that after it leaves the state, the protections afforded by Minnesota law might not apply. “That’s another issue that has come up — the ability to protect data from other states,” he said. “That’s another gap in our law.”

McCarthy said one answer might be to include data authority information as a piece of metadata attached to any piece of data in fusion centers. “What is needed is overwriting sets of rules that exist beyond the database,” he said. But such a capability does not yet exist in fusion center schemas. “If you’re going to start trusting the data to go up into these fusion centers, that’s one piece that needs to be addressed,” McCarthy said. “I’ve been looking for someone to tell me that it has been addressed for about six months now. I have yet to come up with it.”

Road Ahead

Many people involved with fusion centers agree that their potential has barely been tapped. In part, that’s because the centers are relatively new, and many state and local agencies have not yet integrated their data into the fusion centers.

“Law enforcement data [in Minnesota] is pretty fractured,” Bosacker said. “Our issue has been trying to get agencies aware of who we are, what we’re looking for and how to submit things to us.”

Other analysts point to the potential of expanding fusion centers to include many additional types of datasets.

Serrao said information about corrections, probation and paroles has not yet been added to the mix. “As it turns out, it is a very important piece, especially with street gangs and other organized criminal activity," he said. "That is the next piece of information that is going to be broadened in the fusion center environments.”

Other prospective sources of potentially valuable data are sensors and cameras. Although there are already XML schemas for sensor data, they have not been incorporated into fusion centers. As a result, data from sensors and sources such as video feeds must be handled separately.

“One [goal] is the ability to get hold of sensor-type data — sensing wind, air quality," Wethington said. "And when you collect that type of data, it can help you make informed decisions. Also, there is a lot of public data out there: property records, etc. It is so pervasive. There is an eye to looking at that type of data.”

License plate readers are one data source likely to be incorporated in the near future into fusion centers. Zaworski said working groups are already talking about incorporating data from license plate readers into NIEM. “I think it’s an evolutionary process,” he said.