On November 13-14, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Intelligence and Analysis hosted the National Fusion Center Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties (P/CRCL) Officer Workshop, in coordination with the DHS Privacy Office, the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI) Program Management Office, and the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Fusion centers vigilantly develop, implement, and enforce P/CRCL safeguards to protect constitutional rights and to ensure that they are addressing their ethical and legal obligations while engaged in the fusion process. Through P/CRCL workshops and training fusion centers work to ensure that:
- Personnel understand the importance of protecting P/CRCL; and,
- Intelligence systems are used in a manner that conforms to appropriate P/CRCL protection protocols and regulations.
This Workshop was one resource offered as part of DHS’s overall approach to ensuring that fusion centers are best equipped to protect individual privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties.
Specifically, the Workshop:
- Provided training for fusion center P/CRCL Officers;
- Assisted centers in exchanging best practices and lessons learned;
- Built upon existing resources and training efforts to support P/CRCL Officers’ efforts in strengthening their fusion center’s protection of P/CRCL; and,
- Facilitated P/CRCL Officers’ engagement with national advocacy group leaders to discuss P/CRCL protection recommendations and how to leverage available resources, such as the Recommendations for First Amendment-Protected Events for State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies and the Compliance Verification for the Intelligence Enterprise.
Additionally, the workshop featured technical assistance and guidance regarding:
- Review of intelligence products;
- Community engagement/outreach efforts;
- Social media use;
- Privacy policy compliance reviews and audits; and,
- First Amendment protected activities.