By Cliff Montgomery – Sept. 30th, 2013
A group representing U.S. police chiefs from America’s major cities is quietly working to increase domesticspying efforts at a local level. If successful, the move would further integrate local law enforcement entitiesinto the larger U.S. intelligence community.
The Major Cities Chiefs’ Association (MCCA) hopes to increase the collection of domestic intelligence – amove it has said would create a “more defined, whole-of-government architecture that interconnects andbetter integrates state and local criminal intelligence and counter-terrorism operations.”
The MCCA began an initiative in 2011, which it currently calls the Criminal Intelligence Enterprise (CIE). TheChief’s Association insists the CIE would allow a “better connectivity” between “state and local counter-terrorism and intelligence units and among locally-led operations, fusion centers, and federally-led operations.”
The “federally-led operations” often include such entities as Field Intelligence Groups (FIGs) and JointTerrorism Task Forces (JTTFs).
The CIE is intended to be an addition to the pre-existing infrastructure of the Major Cities Chiefs’ IntelligenceCommanders Group (MCCICG) – an MCCA-related organization which helped put together a nation-widereporting process for ‘suspicious activity’.
In March 2012, the MCCICG published a nine-page proposal for the creation of the CIE which it marked “forofficial use only.” The CIE proposal, which apparently was first uncovered by the privacy watchdog PublicIntelligence, makes for interesting reading.
The proposal declares that there is an “unprecedented growth of transnational organized crime,” which“continues to pose a significant threat to national security and public safety.” The proposal uses thisstatement to wager that “criminal intelligence and information sharing should be enhanced, and collaborationwith state and local law enforcement should continue to grow and improve.”
The CIE proposal stated that current “community engagement programs” – which often give citizens anopportunity to report a ‘suspicious activity’ – cannot provide the intelligence needed to stem what it said is arising criminal tide:
“While community engagement programs help in this identification, relying solely on citizens to reportsuspicious activity or a crime may leave law enforcement dependent on a limited window of opportunity torespond. As such, to ensure that law enforcement has the information needed to disrupt criminal activitybefore it occurs, state and local law enforcement agencies must also conduct criminal and terrorism-relatedinvestigations and intelligence operations when appropriate,” stated the proposal.
“Provided that the collection of information is adherent to strict privacy, civil rights, and civil libertiesguidelines – these efforts offer a proactive approach for identifying violent extremism and the activities ofcriminal enterprises,” the proposal added.
