The Virginia Fusion Center has officially declined our request for a visit. Perhaps not a total surprise, as the workings of the VFC are by statute exempted from open records laws. This was by a bill
introduced a few years ago in the VA state legislature. EPIC filed information requests which revealed a Memorandum of Understanding between the Virginia State Police and the FBI. This MOU basically said that the federal government made it a condition that the VFC would not get funding unless it passed such a law in the state
legislature…a disgusting violation of state sovereignty. Here’s EPIC’s page on this:

http://epic.org/privacy/virginia_fusion/

Since they said no to the visit, I say we should file a Virginia open records request anyway. What’s the worst they can say?

The Pennsylvania Criminal Intelligence Center (PaCIC) has also denied our request for a visit. Today I spoke with Captain Ashmar of PaCIC. Firstly, he says much of the personnel will be out the week of March 8th due to training. He also emphasized the sensitive nature of their operations and a concern for privacy of the information being handled. He said that although EPIC has listed PaCIC as a fusion center, it is NOT a fusion center under DHS’ definition. He
says they do not deal with non-law enforcement entities such as private companies or non-law enforcement agencies (such as social
services, natural resources, etc.). PaCIC is strictly a criminal intelligence center, and access to information is restricted even to other law enforcement within the state of Pennsylvania (it is on a
need-to-know basis; “data mining” is not encouraged).

Captain Ashmar was familiar with 28 CFR part 23-he says PaCIC operates in accordance with it-and told me that the Pennsylvania laws are even more restrictive about what type of information can be
collected and how it is to be shared among other law enforcement (he
mentioned the “Crimes Code 9106″).

I asked if PA had a terrorist tip line. They do, and it rings at the PaCIC. PaCIC “vets” the tips and works with the state’s Joint Terrorism Task Force if the tip checks out.

According to Ashmar, there is no fusion center in PA…that is to say,
no fusion center in PA that fits DHS’ definition of a fusion center.

PaCIC has a written privacy policy, and I am asking them to send this to me. I will be very interested to see if it contains any information about PA’s Crime Code 9106.

When I hung up the phone with Captain Ashmar, I saw I had been on the
phone for half an hour!