The federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is silently and gradually converting local police agencies into regional subdivisions of the surveillance state.
Typically, we get only occasional glimpses of the despotic disregard for the Constitution and egregious violation of the rights of the people committed by DHS fusion centers.
Thanks to a presentation delivered by a sheriff’s department sergeant at a casino in West Virginia, the scope of the surveillance and the blurring of the lines between federal, state, and local law enforcement were revealed without the typical reserve shown at similar gatherings.
Here’s the remarkably forthcoming report of the pro-Fusion Center address as reported by the Shepherdstown (West Virginia) Chronicle. I’ll advise you to read closely the content of Sergeant Robert Sell’s description of the DHS fusion center where he works. The pride permeating the remarks made about the nearly unbelievable submission of local control of police is dismaying.
The story as reported:
The Fusion Center, which was the topic of Sell’s talk at the Friday luncheon, is located in Charleston and is a partnership between public and private entities encompassing local, state and federal law enforcement, public safety agencies, and the private sector. The Center’s mission is to anticipate, identify, prevent, monitor criminal activity and all other hazards, then responsibly distribute their findings while protecting the rights of the citizens of the state and the agencies involved.
“The bottom line,” Sell said during his talk, “is that the Fusion Center reaches out to many different levels within the community to gather information, process, analyze, predict and ultimately issue warnings or alerts as appropriate.”
Sell explained that the local FLO’s provide information at state and national levels, as well as locally when necessary.
“You may be surprised at the range of topics that are researched at the Fusion Center,” Sell told attendees. “They include terrorism, both international and domestic, gangs, security threat groups, auto theft, high technology crime, threats to public order, special events and civil emergencies, threats to government, law enforcement and critical infrastructure, identity theft and fraud, major serial arson, major alcohol, tobacco and explosives incidents, HAZMAT incidents and any international incidents with potential local impact.”
According to Sell, the driving force behind the creation of Fusion Centers was the September 11 attacks on U.S. soil.
“The 9/11 Commission report outlined many deficiencies in the intelligence community,” Sell said, “as well as lack of communication and information sharing both within and across government organizations, technology problems, lack of standards and policies and the need for a unified process for reporting, tracking an accessing Suspicious Activity Reports [SARs], to name a few.”
SARs can now be submitted by anyone.
“There is even an app for submitting,” Sell said.
Want to be rewarded for spying on your neighbors, citizen? Good news! There’s an app for that!
Seriously. The sergeant’s seemingly joyful description of his department’s submissiveness to the federal DHS is unpatriotic in so many ways and unworthy of a man who likely swore to serve and protect his fellow citizens of Jefferson County, West Virginia.
It isn’t as though we shouldn’t have seen this coming.
In 2012, a special white paper was submitted to the House of Representatives wherein the DHS was encouraged to embark on an “evolving mission” away from its ostensible purpose of fighting terrorism, toward becoming the administrator of an enormous domestic intelligence agency resulting from an integration of the country’s local and state law-enforcement agencies.
This report was written by the Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group, co-chaired by former DHS chief Michael Chertoff. The blueprint promoted in the White Paper pushes Congress toward green-lighting the growth of the DHS and the dissolution of local police and sheriffs.
The organization described in the paper, entitled “Homeland Security and Intelligence: Next Steps in Evolving the Mission,” is reminiscent of more draconian governments. For example, one section of the report calls for a transition in the mission of DHS away from protecting the country from the “terrorism” of foreign militants and toward “more specific homeward focused areas.” Additional sections of the report lay out the plans for building a DHS/police hybrid agency that can monitor Americans in any town and prevent threats from fellow citizens.
In order to achieve their ultimate aim, the globalists demand that the DHS or some other federal agency take control of the personnel decisions currently made by local police chiefs and county sheriffs. “As the threat grows more localized,” the report claims, “the federal government’s need to train, and even staff, local agencies, such as major city police departments, will grow.” Put another way: The federal government will run your local police department and sheriff’s office.
The establishment of fusion centers is a key component of this plan. The following information is taken from a fact sheet on fusion centers posted on the DHS website:
“A fusion center is a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise and information to the center with the goal of maximizing their ability to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity.”
A description of the functioning of these incubators for the forthcoming federal police force is also provided on the DHS site:
State and major urban area fusion centers (fusion centers) serve as primary focal points within the state and local environment for the receipt, analysis, gathering, and sharing of threat-related information among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) partners…. Fusion centers conduct analysis and facilitate information sharing, assisting law enforcement and homeland security partners in preventing, protecting against, and responding to crime and terrorism.
The literature promoting the acceptance of fusion centers lists several ways the new federal agency will impose its will on the formerly autonomous and accountable police chief or county sheriff.
Sadly, every one of the reprehensible recommendations made in the 2012 white paper are boasted about by Sergeant Sell in his speech.
Sergeant Sell and all his fellow law enforcement officers who are eagerly taking money and marching orders from the federal government should be reminded of the fact that there is not a single syllable of the Constitution authorizing any such federal participation in law enforcement.
If the power isn’t granted to the federal government in the Constitution, then authority over that area remains with the states and the people as described in the 10th Amendment.
In many cities and towns there is still time to stop the march toward consolidation. State and local sovereignty is the solution. Constitutional sheriffs and conscientious police chiefs are the last line of defense of the traditional mission of American law enforcement and should be jealous of their responsibilities, and should never permit politicians to hand those duties over to companies, cabals, or federal agencies.
Citizens should be concerned about the consolidation, as it will result in their loss of direct control over their neighborhood law enforcement.
The further away law enforcement is from the direct involvement of the local citizen, the less responsive it becomes to the local citizen.
I’ll close with comments made by Sergeant Sell as quoted in the Shepherdstown article.
“I maintain current training in situational recognition, information analysis and dissemination and threat vulnerabilities,” Sell said. “I also receive information from the Fusion Center and distribute to specific agency contacts, receive leads which originate from within the agency or the community regarding suspicious activity and know who needs to know the intelligence and information I acquire.”
Someone needs to send Sell and everyone at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department a copy of the Constitution — quickly!
Photo: 400tmax/iStock Unreleased/Getty Images
