By Robert O’Harrow Jr., The Washington Post
Police in Florida are building a new counter-terrorism database designed to give law-enforcement agencies around the country a powerful new tool to analyze billions of records about both criminals and ordinary Americans.
Organizers said the system, dubbed Matrix, enables investigators to find patterns and links among people and events faster than ever, combining police records with commercially available collections of personal information about most American adults. It would let authorities, for instance, instantly find the name and address of every brown-haired owner of a red Ford pickup in a 20-mile radius of a suspicious event.
The state-level program, aided by federal funding, is poised to expand across the nation at a time when Congress has been sharply critical of similar data-driven systems on the federal level, such as a Pentagon plan for global surveillance and an aviation passenger-screening system.
The Florida system is another example of the ongoing debate about the proper balance between national security and individual privacy.
Paul Cameron, president of Seisint, the Boca Raton, Fla., company that developed Matrix and donated it to the state, said: “It is exactly how law enforcement worked yesterday, except it’s extraordinarily faster. In this age of risks that appear immediately, you have to be able to respond immediately.”
Some civil-liberties groups fear Matrix will dramatically lower the threshold for government snooping because other systems don’t permit investigators to search criminal and commercial records with such ease or speed.
“It’s going to make fishing expeditions so much more convenient,” said Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit that monitors privacy issues. “There’s going to be a push to use it for many different kinds of purposes.”
Fears of abuse
A senior official overseeing the project acknowledged it could be intrusive and pledged to use it with restraint.
“It’s scary. It could be abused. I mean, I can call up everything about you, your pictures and pictures of your neighbors,” said Phil Ramer, special agent in charge of statewide intelligence. “Our biggest problem now is everybody who hears about it wants it.”
The Justice Department has provided $4 million to expand Matrix nationally and will provide the computer network for information-sharing among the states, according to documents and interviews. The Homeland Security Department has pledged $8 million, state officials said.
At least 135 police agencies in Florida have signed up for Matrix, which began operation more than a year ago. At least a dozen states said they want to add their records.
In some ways, Matrix resembles other data-driven counter-terrorism initiatives started since Sept. 11, 2001. The Pentagon’s controversial Terrorism Information Awareness program also sought to use personal data in new ways but on a far larger scale.
Started by retired Adm. John Poindexter, the idea was to create a global data-surveillance system that might find subtle signs of imminent threats. Lawmakers sharply limited the program’s funding several months ago and now some intend to shut it down.
Matrix is short for Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange. Florida officials said the system will be used only by authorized investigators under tight supervision. They said it includes data that have always been available to investigators but brings the information together and enables police to access it with extraordinary speed.
Technical challenges include ensuring the data are accurate and able to be updated frequently.
“The power of this technology - to take seemingly isolated bits of data and tie them together to get a clear picture in seconds - is vital to strengthening our domestic security,” said Tim Moore, who was commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement until last month.
An idea is born
Matrix began soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Seisint founder Hank Asher called Florida police and claimed he could pinpoint the hijackers and others who might pose a risk of terrorist activity.
Working without a contract or pay, Asher set about creating the system in Florida, Ramer said.
In 1999, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI had suspended information-service contracts with an earlier Asher-run company because of concerns about his past, according to law-enforcement sources. The Chicago Tribune reported in 1987 that court documents in a federal drug case said that defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey, who identified Asher as a pilot and one-time smuggler, offered him as an informant.
Jennie Khoen, a spokeswoman for the Florida department, said yesterday that the agency knew about Asher’s “history with drug smuggling” - including his work as an informant.
Moore said that his department “knew about Mr. Asher’s past. We were aware of his informant activity. But we were also aware he had never been arrested or charged.”
Because of the renewed questions about his past and because the state is entering into a contract for Matrix services, Khoen said, “it is prudent and responsible for us to do a comprehensive review of his background.”
The Florida Legislature just allocated $1.6 million to begin paying Seisint for its work.