June 5, 2008 2:43PM 

# Fusion Centers in Search of a Problem 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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Via [Secrecy News](http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2008/06/fusion_centers_face.html): “There is, more often than not, insufficient purely ‘terrorist’ activity to support a multi-jurisdictional and multi-governmental level fusion center that exclusively processes terrorist activity.” This is from a Naval Postgraduate School master’s thesis entitled: “[An Examination of State and Local Fusion Centers and Data Collection Methods](http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/fusion.pdf).”

Though they arose to counter the terrorism threat, “fusion centers” will seek out other things to do. Programs like these are born of slogans — “connect the dots” — “information sharing” — rather than sound security thinking. In a TechKnowledge piece last year titled, “[Fusion Centers: Leave ‘Em to the States](https://www.cato.org/tech/tk/070314-tk.html),” I juxtaposed the active fusion center in Massachusetts with the hair-on-fire overreaction of the Boston Police to a guerrilla marketing campaign featuring [stylized Lite-Brites](http://spankedwithmoonrocks.ytmnd.com/).

##### Related Tags 

[Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Technology and Privacy](https://www.cato.org/technology-privacy), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) 

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