Nationally, fusion centers have taken on a reputation as innovative new tools in the ongoing battle against terror and violence, and are also seen as hotbeds for potential civil rights violations.
Adam Schwartz, of the Illinois chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the organization is in the midst of “ongoing investigations” of the state’s two fusion centers, the State Terrorism and Intelligence Center in Springfield and the Crime Prevention Information Center in Chicago.
“We have not become aware of evidence in Illinois that either of these fusion centers has crossed a line,” he said.
He said the Illinois ACLU is primarily concerned that fusion centers, in and out of the state, might become vehicles for political spying.
Fusion centers, which collect information from all levels of law enforcement, can be particularly problematic because they amass so much information about individuals.
“Some of that intelligence is strong and some is weak,” Schwartz said, adding that there isn’t a clear vetting process to make sure what is and what is not useful or legitimate.
Further, there is both contemporary and historical precedent of the government using law enforcement techniques to gather information on individuals. The Red Squad operated in Chicago through much of the last century, collecting data on perceived dissidents; in Maryland, police conducted surveillance on peaceful activists in 2008.
People who have “unpopular views” should not be subjected to police investigation, he said.
Issues with fusion centers around the country have been cause for concern at the Illinois ACLU, Schwartz said. They are keeping an eye on local fusion centers to see that state officials are not spying on anyone without good reason.
“The gold standard is whether or not law enforcement needs to have reasonable suspicion of crime,” Schwartz said, adding that, the organization’s investigations into fusion centers are “figuring out whether they adopt that standard.”
The ACLU’s work, from fusion centers and beyond, is like a “‘canary in the mineshaft,’” warning of dangers well before they come to fruition,” said Paul Rosenzweig, a homeland security expert at Northwestern University.
He said, nonetheless, that fusion centers’ potential to spy on individuals wouldn’t be on the top of his list of police abuses.
In Illinois, the ACLU has been working on fusion centers for two to three years. Although they have not found any activities that might violate the civil liberties of citizens, they do have a lawsuit against that state fusion center seeking to enforce a FOIA request asking for information on the center’s privacy policy, it’s use of databases and the Internet.
