Explain the role of a fusion center in the day-to-day operations of a large metropolitan police agency. Do you think that fusion centers would be very helpful to smaller agencies as well? Why or why not?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answer should contain these potential items:
Acts as a data center within a police agency.
Serves as an intelligence hub and clearinghouse for all potentially relevant homeland security and crime information.
Information can be used to assess local terror threats and aid I more traditional anti-crime operations.
Combs through criminal complaints; arrest, correctional, parole records; 911 calls; police requests for information to provide officers with information tools necessary to stop a terrorist event or investigate a crime.
Disseminate relevant and timely intelligence both vertically and horizontally.
Intelligence assists in providing information to decision-makers.
Often work very closely with smaller agencies and different jurisdictions.
Although a small agency can benefit from the intelligence disseminated from a fusion center, it seems unnecessary for them to have their own.
Very expensive.
It is possible that there will not be enough activity/information to accurately recognize trends or make predictions.
State-level fusion centers typically make their services/information available to smaller agencies.
Fusion centers benefit from smaller agencies sharing information with them, as well (this is one of the main reasons for having fusion centers).
If there is critical infrastructure/key resources within the jurisdiction of a smaller agency, the closest fusion center (typically at the state level) will have already have completed a threat assessment for such areas of concern (often with the assistance of the local agency) and made copies available to the smaller jurisdictions.
By having intelligence in many different places