Chaotic infrastructure - part of the landscape for local government

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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4438063.html

The centers also face practical obstacles that could limit their effectiveness, including a shortage of money, skilled analysts and proven relationships with the FBI and Homeland Security.

Still, the centers are emerging as a key element in a sometimes chaotic new domestic intelligence infrastructure, which includes homeland security units in local police forces and 103 FBI-led terrorism task forces, triple the number that existed before Sept. 11, 2001.

Fusion centers are becoming "part of the landscape for local government," said the incoming D.C. police chief, Cathy Lanier. But she warned that police are navigating a new patchwork of state and federal privacy laws that govern the sharing, collection and storage of information.

"We're in a very precarious position right now," she said. "If we lose community support, that is going to be a big deal for local law enforcement."

Traditionally, police had little to do with counter-terrorism. But after the 2001 attacks, it became obvious that al-Qaida members had been preparing not only in far-off Afghan training camps but also in places such as a Gold's Gym in Greenbelt, Md., and flight schools in Florida. An unwitting Maryland state trooper stopped one of the future hijackers for speeding on Interstate 95.

....

Civil liberties advocates worry the fledgling fusion centers could stray into monitoring people engaged in lawful activities, as some members of new police homeland security units have done. A Georgia homeland security officer, for example, was discovered photographing a vegans protest at a HoneyBaked Ham store in 2003.