The Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) - State police headquarters in Framingham, Mass. will act as the home base for a new weapon in fighting terrorism that will help local and state police departments link up with federal authorities to share information.
The so-called “fusion center” is seen as an all-accessible source of information that flows both ways.
“What it will allow us to do is connect with regional fusion centers up and down the seaboard and connect us with federal government, strictly on the level of intelligence gathering and dissemination,” state police Col. Thomas G. Robbins told the Boston Herald.
An intelligence analyst will be hired and based at state police headquarters with the backing of the state Executive Office of Public Safety.
Final details have yet to be worked out, but the center will include a database of terrorist information as well as crime and intelligence analysis.
The center will allow local law enforcement agencies to both review information from other areas, and contribute information regionally and nationally.
“Our purpose is to gather the information at a local level and disseminate it at the local level,” Robbins said. We’ve already met with some local chiefs about it and everybody is on board, and excited about it because the information will flow both ways.”
Robbins said he is also focused on elevating the department’s manpower to its high-water mark of 2,300 to help the department in both its public safety and anti-terrorism missions.
Even though the department is expected to greet a new class of 150 in November, the state police loses about 100 troopers annually through attrition and retirement and currently stands at about 2,100.
“Our numbers are down from previous years,” Robbins said. “The thing I’m pushing for is a maintenance class for state police. Once we establish a level of manpower based on our mission, then what we look to do is approach (Beacon Hill) and say ‘Look, in order to make this work, we need a class every year of a certain amount of troopers to keep us at full strength.’”