In this op-ed for the Hill, Professor Jonathan Hafetz of Seton Hall Law School discusses the perniciousness of Homeland Security fusion centers in increasing surveillance of minorities, particularly Arab and Muslim Americans. Informed by a new report from the Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR) at Rutgers School of Law, Professor Hafetz discusses how the proliferation of fusion centers across the United States stands to wreak havoc on civil rights.
Fusion centers developed in response to the 9/11 Commission Report’s conclusion that the lack of intelligence sharing between state and federal agencies contributed to law enforcement’s failure to stop the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Operated by individual states and localities, fusion centers seek to coordinate law enforcement at all levels of government, through a system of intelligence gathering that retains, analyzes and synthesizes data.
View the op-ed here.
