Intelligence Collection Challenges: Security vs. Civil Liberties

This discussion post explores the intricate challenges of intelligence collection, particularly the delicate balance between homeland security and the civil liberties of American citizens. The post examines the role of fusion centers in sharing information, highlighting their importance in counter-terrorism efforts while also addressing concerns related to data privacy and ethnic profiling. The assignment references key principles of fair information practice and the potential for bias in law enforcement practices, especially in the context of ethnic profiling. It acknowledges the evolving nature of intelligence practices and the ongoing efforts to refine them to better protect American citizens while upholding their rights. The post draws on several research papers to support its points and emphasizes the need for continuous improvement in intelligence gathering processes.

RUNNING HEAD: INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION CHALLENGES
Intelligence Collection Challenges
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1
INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION CHALLENGES
Intelligence fusion centers have rapidly grown in few years as local, state and tribal
enforced law agencies has tried the level best for sharing the data about threats to the societies.
The Homeland Security Department along with the Information Sharing Environment of the
Office of the National Intelligence Director comprised of the center of fusion as an essential
mechanism for helping them in the task of sharing information of terrorism among the
enforcement of law, the intelligence community and the private sector. The process of fusion
signifies a modern generation for the function of intelligence and to develop a fresh structure for
understanding of local, state and enforcement of tribal law agencies (Johnson 2007). It is
essential to involve a wide range of organisation and individuals to become the consumer and the
contributor of the function of intelligence. It also involves in changing of processes and attitudes
of personnel. It is essential to establish new information and function distribution or sharing
processes in the county, tribal, municipal, state and enforcement of federal law partners.
Fusion centers accumulate several personal information about the citizens of America,
and they possess to access a wide array of government databases. They can share and access
information from local and state criminal record system along with the database of law
enforcement and federal intelligence (Boer 2015). Fusion centers should retain and collect the
least amount of information that is identifiable personally that is necessary for the purpose of law
enforcement. The Fusion center can use the personally identifiable information for the purpose of
law enforcement for which the collection of the information was done. The fusion center are
developed to for sharing information across the border of the state the basic responsibility for
safeguarding the fusion centers access, collect and at the same time it can share information with
proper responsibility of information which belongs to state. According to the Principles of Fair
Information Practice defines clearly that the access to personal information should ensure the

2
INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION CHALLENGES
integrity and security of data. The control of data security is significant for fusion centers which
has the accessibility of wide array of databases.
The enforcement of law engages profile in ethnic when they take actions on the base of
religion, race, national origin and ethnicity as the alternative to objective evidence and conduct
of an individual. Ethnic profiling carries out by several levels of enforcement of law.from
counter-terrorism to local units, and it can take place during the practice of policing like border
control and identity checks (Arcos 2016). Police has the power to search by stopping which
varies according to places. But racial and ethnic profiling defines the target of individuals that
constitutes the discrimination of illegal activities under international law. Immigrant and the
minority across United States and Europe has informed about the biased behaviour by the police.
The Justice of Open Society Initiative has filed widespread profiling in the member state of
European Union which includes the Spain, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia and France.
The process of fusion in the intelligence department has a good deal of ability for
functioning of the intelligence operation. This is a true fact that the several jurisdictional
characters of the operation of terrorists and the enterprises of the criminal. As within any
institution or aspect within reform, society and transformation cannot take place overnight.
Intelligence personal of law enforced bodies are developing and learning to provide the best
practices for protecting the people of America from both domestic and foreign threats. At the
same time they observe the afforded rights to those individuals who get the facility of protection.
Fusion centers are still evolving, and in the future it will provide some better practices to the life
of an American citizen.

3
INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION CHALLENGES
Reference:
(2019). Retrieved 25 August 2019, from https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/46958200.pdf
Arcos, R. (2016). Public relations strategic intelligence: Intelligence analysis, communication
and influence. Public relations review, 42(2), 264-270.
Boer, M. D. (2015). Counter-terrorism, security and intelligence in the EU: Governance
challenges for collection, exchange and analysis. Intelligence and National Security, 30(2-3),
402-419.
Johnson, L. K. (Ed.). (2007). Handbook of intelligence studies. Routledge.
Treviño, L. H., & Weaver, G. R. (1997). Ethical issues in competitive intelligence practice:
Consensus, conflicts, and challenges. Competitive Intelligence Review, 8(1), 61-72.

4
INTELLIGENCE COLLECTION CHALLENGES