Surveillance of Activists in Department of Homeland Security’s Fusion Centers

• In Event: Surveillance in the Criminal Justice System & Society

Abstract

In recent years’ activists have often been one of the main targets of increased government surveillance, specifically within state fusion centers. Fusion centers are often referred to as “intelligence centers” or “information analysis centers” which are funded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). DHS was created by the Bush administration in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001. Fusion centers were established in order to combat counterterrorism by linking reports of suspicious activity to other data in order to create profiles of individuals or groups who present a terrorist risk and are housed in state and local law enforcement agencies. Recently, fusion centers have come under fire by the American Civil Liberties Union as well as by individual activists and journalists which report being unfairly monitored and labeled as domestic terrorists by their state and local police departments.

The monitoring and tracking of journalists and activists in the United States is generating a new realm of research known as activist intelligence and covert corporate strategy. The goal of this research is to evaluate which activists are being targeted most often by federal and state law enforcement agencies and to discuss the constitutionality of the surveillance monitoring of activists.

Author

• Stephanie Kaplan, UNLV