Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center

1. Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center

2. Co-located at the Houston Emergency Center (HEC)

3. Mission Statement The Houston Regional Intelligence Service Fusion Center (HRISC) will provide continuous security to the region by gathering, developing and sharing intelligence into the capabilities, intentions, and actions of terrorist groups and individuals which pose a threat to our populace and region.

4. Situation There are numerous police departments in the Greater Houston area that may have intelligence relative to terrorist activities or criminal activities that threaten the health, welfare, and safety of our communities at large.

5. Situation A regional criminal intelligence service gathers information and intelligence into other community threats such as organized crime, serial crimes, emerging crimes and trends, and shares that intelligence with all the partners in the service.

6. Situation A regional intelligence service surmounts the secret issue that surrounds so much of what the federal government and their terrorist task forces do.

7. Situation A regional intelligence service acts as a multiplier of the knowledge, skills and abilities of the participants and the entire Gulf Coast region

8. The Regional Intelligence Service The obstacles to a multi-organization intelligence service are the financial cost, personnel commitment, equipment requirements, and the need for the collocation of personnel-usually away from the main police headquarters.

9. The Regional Intelligence Service To resolve these issues, we proposed a number of new strategies which minimize cost and maximize personnel usage.

10. The Regional Intelligence Service Our model service relies heavily on a technology wherein (ultimately) many of the participants are electronically collocated.

11. The Regional Intelligence Service Through the use of secure Internet connections, participating members pass information to the central service center which would compile it, place it on a common electronic site for all to see, and then process it into an intelligence product which is also shared by all.

12. The Regional Intelligence Service Additionally, all information gathered (and any intelligence product developed) is also forwarded to the local Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) office. This passing of information satisfies our mandate to support the Federal/State/Local JTTF effort.

13. The Regional Intelligence Service A contact person from their respective department is responsible for gathering and passing information, for attending a quarterly networking meeting, and to participate as a service member.

14. The Regional Intelligence Service A system such as this provides a maximum amount of benefit to a department, and other organizations, for a minimal commitment in personnel and cost

15. Leadership • Collegial

16. Benefits of the Service There are several benefits to an intelligence service so constructed: • Multiplies information and intelligence yield by increasing area of awareness and number of officers available. • Assists smaller departments by providing large department Intelligence services at a low cost; also provides them with wide area awareness. • Assists police executives and decision makers with wide-area information awareness • Identifies threats and emerging threats to the community.

17. Benefits of the Service • Overcomes secret issues and constraints. • Provides training for smaller departments in state of the art intelligence tactics, rules, and analysis. • Multiplies knowledge, skills and abilities of all participants. • Provides a real time cooperative network of intelligence officers. • Promotes regionalism.

18. Participating Members • Gather information and analyze for intelligence value, providing written intelligence reports when required. • Establish and maintain collegial relationships with various federal, state, and local agencies. • Coordinate, consolidate, collate, and disseminate incoming reports, information, and other data, which pertain to possible terrorist or criminal activities.

19. Participating Members • Respond to scenes that have a possible terrorist nexus or are otherwise suspicious in nature. • Interview persons who possess or may possess information valuable to the Service for fulfilling our intelligence gathering mission. • Maintain information, intelligence products, and files in compliance with guidelines established by 28 CFR Part 23 and established intelligence protocols.

20. Cost to Date

21. Putting it Together Fusion Center Members: • Texas Department of Public Service • Harris County Sheriffs Department • Houston Metro Police • Houston Police Department • Other agencies pending

23. Data Sets and Software • Data Discovery and Organizing Software • Coplink • i2 Analyst Notebook • LEO • Visual Analytics • ARCGIS • Secure Chat-room/Discussion board • Google Earth (know thy enemy) • NIEM and Global Justice XML implementation planned

24. Equipment • Digital photography • Radiation Detectors • Laptop with Wireless Broadband • Response Vehicles (in progress) • GPS (on board and portable)

25. What are we looking for? Anomalies

26. Houston Regional Intelligence Service Fusion Center cidcdu@leo.gov 713-884-4710 713-884-4726 (fax)