A fusion of crime fighters

When a tip came in recently about a threat of violence at a local high school football game, a Clark County School District police officer helped plan a response. When a Colorado man was arrested this fall on terrorism charges, a Department of Homeland Security analyst probed whether the suspect had Las Vegas ties.

Though the two cases could not be more different, the officials who worked them can be found in the same cubicle-filled room at the Southern Nevada Counterterrorism Center.

Open for more than two years now, the Las Vegas "fusion" center is battling both terrorism and street crime, a dual mission that has affected how local and federal law enforcement agents view each other and their jobs.

The fusion center concept, which was developed by the federal government after the 9/11 attacks, is grounded in the idea that information flow between police agencies is key to stopping terrorism. But in Las Vegas and elsewhere, the concept has evolved to include a broader "all crimes, all hazards" approach.

A sign federal law enforcement has embraced this strategy came last month when Attorney General Eric Holder visited Las Vegas and praised the local fusion center as a national model.

The maturation of the Las Vegas fusion center coincides with Gov. Jim Gibbons' decision last month to fold the state's Office of Homeland Security into the Nevada Division of Emergency Management.

The fusion center appears poised to fill any void left by the merger, which left Nevada without a homeland security director who reports directly to the governor.

Sheriff Doug Gillespie, whose Metropolitan Police Department runs the fusion center, said the center has enhanced all aspects of local policing. He points to a meeting he had earlier this year with officials from the Henderson and North Las Vegas police departments. It was the first time ever, he said, the executive staffs of the three departments came together to discuss information sharing and long-term planning.

"From a day-to-day crime fighting standpoint, we're able to exchange and get out data among all law enforcement in the valley at a faster pace," Gillespie said. "We've also got connectivity to information generated by DHS and the FBI, which makes us more proactive in identifying threats."

Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said mixing anti-terrorism with regular crime fighting is problematic.

"They say they need extraordinary measures because of terrorism, but as soon as they get them, they apply it to ordinary situations," he said. "I think it weakens their argument that they needed extraordinary measures for terrorism."

Since 2004, the Homeland Security Department has granted hundreds of millions of dollars to establish and operate fusion centers across the nation. About $15 million of that has come to Nevada, which boasts three of the nation's 72 centers. A facility in Reno examines threats and crime trends in Northern Nevada, and a center in Carson City focuses on rural parts of the state.

But the Southern Nevada Counterterrorism Center, a two-story leased complex near McCarran International Airport, is by far the largest and most elaborate of Nevada's intelligence sharing centers. And it's the only one in the nation that has a school district police officer on site. Gillespie said he asked for school district involvement after a shooting death near Palo Verde High School last year. He credits the officer's presence with preventing other violence at schools.

On an average day, more than 20 Las Vegas police officers work alongside agents from the FBI and the Homeland Security Department, as well as with officials from a dozen other agencies.

"Metro definitely has the biggest footprint there, but the way it's structured allows us to leverage each other's knowledge and experience," said Steve Martinez, who has headed the FBI's local office for the past three-and-a-half years. He is transferring to the top job in the FBI's Los Angeles office at the end of the month.

Some federal agents have complained Las Vegas police have been too slow to share access to valuable information.

Lt. Kevin McMahill, a member of the police department's counterterrorism team, admits information exchange hasn't been seamless, partially because of computer software problems.

"We also had some institutional issues that have taken us a while to get around," he added. "There was information we weren't used to sharing with each other."

Enhanced information sharing raises privacy issues that worry some civil libertarians.

The Las Vegas fusion center has a retired FBI agent who monitors compliance with federal guidelines for gathering and storing information. Any agency that receives federal funding to gather intelligence is subject to these rules.

The guidelines prohibit law enforcement from collecting or keeping intelligence "about the political, religious, or social views, associations, or activities" of people or groups unless the information directly relates to criminal conduct or activity.

These issues become more touchy now that the so-called National Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative is under way at fusion centers. The initiative involves training officers to detect suspicious behavior, and if necessary, log incidents.

Again, the ACLU's Lichtenstein has concerns: "The problem is we're not discussing what constitutes suspicious activity. They say people will be trained on what suspicious activity is, but without clear limits, you just have people spying on each other and putting information into a database."

Long before the fusion center opened its doors, Las Vegas boasted homeland security capabilities far more extensive than most cities. Many officers from the police counterterrorism section now work at the fusion center, including nine on an all-hazard unit that responds to hazardous material calls. That unit averages a call a day.

In addition, the Las Vegas department is one of the few in the country with representatives who can see classified information at both the Homeland Security Department's National Operations Center and the National Counterterrorism Center.

The fusion center also has a room where agents may access classified material.

The second floor of the facility has wall-mounted computer screens monitoring serious police calls in progress. A dry-erase board tracks burglary trends.

With all the technology and information available at the local fusion center, sometimes the best way to sniff out a threat is by hitting the streets.

That's what agents did following the arrest in Colorado of Najibullah Zazi, who is accused of plotting to detonate a bomb in New York City. The indictment against Zazi alleges he bought large quantities of beauty supply products containing hydrogen peroxide and acetone to make bombs.

"We visited every beauty supply shop and storage facility in Southern Nevada and told them what to be on the look out for," McMahill said.

While monitoring events locally, fusion center officials also travel to other parts of the country and world to learn about anti-terrorism strategies.

Two detectives recently went to the G20 summit in Pittsburgh to observe crowd-control measures.

And in December, several Las Vegas police officers plan to travel to Mumbai to talk with Indian authorities about a 2008 attack on hotels. A similar trip planned for last year fell through at the last minute because of visa issues.

"If you look at attacks in the rest of the world, you know hotels are an attractive target for our enemies," the FBI's Martinez said.

Contact reporter Alan Maimon at amaimon@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0404.