System Allows Agencies Across Country to Share Data Instantaneously
By Spencer S. Hsu, The Washington Post
Hundreds of federal, state and local intelligence and law enforcement agencies will be able to share threat reports, investigative leads and potential evidence instantaneously under a new counter-terrorism computer system announced yesterday by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.
Developed since the September 2001 terrorist attacks, the Homeland Security Information Network is part of a sweeping data-sharing policy adapted by federal authorities. The network, created in response to presidential priorities, is designed to prevent acts of terror and to give local police chiefs, mayors and governors greater access to federal intelligence.
Ridge announced the launch of the system in the Joint Operations Command Center at Washington’s police headquarters, where he was joined by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and officials from New York City and California, who developed the system with the Defense Intelligence Agency.
“In this new post-9/11 era, a new philosophy is required -- a philosophy of shared responsibility, shared leadership and shared accountability,” Ridge said. “The federal government cannot micromanage the protection of America.”
The Internet-based secure network marks a dramatic expansion of U.S. law enforcement agencies’ ability to simultaneously share time-sensitive information. The development has been eagerly anticipated by thousands of users and closely monitored by civil liberties groups that track the impact of technology on personal privacy.
Although cooperation among federal, state and local leaders is increasing, Ridge told a greater Washington town hall meeting at George Mason University yesterday that the area remains more vulnerable to attack than most major cities.
The region’s three greatest challenges are “preparation, preparation and preparation,” Ridge said, and “a massive public education campaign” is needed before another attack occurs. But, Ridge added, “the most important thing we can do at any level of government . . . is share information so people can act on it.”
When the first phase is completed this summer, the network will provide a real-time instant messaging, e-mail and live chat service for 5,000 authorized users across 300 agencies in all U.S. states, five territories and 50 urban areas, Ridge said. Users with proper security clearances and software will be able to share vast quantities of data, from audio to computer models, and from foreign news clippings to refined analyses.
In effect, the system will flash information from a police officer on the street to Ridge’s office to across the country in minutes, instead of the 12 to 24 hours that can elapse before information is received now.
“We’ll be able to send photos and maps, even streaming video. We’ll even be able to access data at the scene of a crime . . . through wireless laptops,” Ridge said.
The system has proved its value, authorities said. During last August’s East Coast power failure, Washington officials lost telephone contact with New York City. Using the network, New York officials within minutes ruled out terrorism and permitted colleagues across the country to “stand down,” said Ed Manavian, chairman of the executive board of the Joint Regional Information Exchange System, from which the network was adapted.
During a heightened terrorism alert level in December, two Los Angeles patrol officers separately identified suspicious people and alerted the network. D.C. police recognized one of the names and immediately opened an investigation, which remains active, Manavian said.
The network “has become the ultimate chat room for the anti-terrorism business,” said John Miller, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department’s counter-terror unit. “If you go through the autopsy of what went wrong September 11, it wasn’t that no one had the information, it was that nobody talked to their counterparts enough so that all the information ended up in one place.”
Privacy experts said the lack of intelligence-sharing among government agencies was a critical shortcoming exposed by the terrorist attacks. But they warned that new homeland security and intelligence laws create loopholes through which the government can collect and disseminate secret information without due-process safeguards.
“The need for an information-sharing system is undeniable and urgent,” said James X. Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology. “But you need checks and balances, accountability and oversight to give people the assurance of reliability.”
The network mostly expands to law enforcement an instant-messaging capability long available in the private sector. It does not mine private records or exploit new tracking technology that could ensnare innocent people, officials said.
The network’s users are restricted to governors, state homeland security advisers, commanding officers for each state’s National Guard, state and urban police departments and emergency centers.