Law-enforcement agencies share intelligence in new center

The call came from an intelligence fusion center in Illinois to Virginia's fusion center in Chesterfield County.

Police at the University of Illinois had identified a Virginia resident who had been cyber-stalking two students and threatening to carry out a campus massacre similar to what occurred in 2007 at Virginia Tech. The suspect said by e-mail that he was on his way to the university on Jan. 12, 2008.

The Virginia Fusion Center, housed in Virginia State Police headquarters on Midlothian Turnpike, used the information to find out what kind of car the suspect was driving and to determine that he had no record of firearms purchases in the state. They soon found him through local law enforcement in Southwest Virginia, where he was being held on a mental-health warrant, Virginia State Police said.

The situation might not have been terrorism-related, but information about it was shared by the intelligence network assembled after the Sept. 11 attacks. The network has made sharing of critical information the rule, not the exception, in criminal investigations and emergencies.

"We created a fusion center to share, to make it impossible not to share," said Capt. Steven W. Lambert, commander of the state police's Criminal Intelligence Division, which runs the center.

The result is a working relationship among federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies -- as well as fusion centers across the country -- that local emergency officials say they have never seen before.

"We've got situational access that we didn't have before," said Curt M. Nellis, deputy emergency management coordinator in Chesterfield. "That makes our job a lot easier when we're aware of what the threat is we have to handle."

The Virginia center opened in December 2005, although it was already in operation as a "virtual" information-sharing network through law-enforcement and other agencies. It's not virtual anymore. The center physically houses representatives of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as state police, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the Virginia National Guard and the state Department of Fire Programs. Personnel also work closely with private institutions, such as Dominion Virginia Power, that own sensitive systems critical to public safety.

The center has struggled with funding, as federal homeland-security grants have dwindled and 80 percent of available money has been reserved for localities. But the operation, with 28 full-time state positions, has delivered on the promises made to improve intelligence-sharing after terrorists struck the Pentagon in Arlington County and the World Trade Center in New York eight years ago. State police also have representatives on every joint terrorism task force in the state and included an intelligence officer in every field office in the state.

"The exchange of information is better, there's no question about it," said state police Superintendent W. Steven Flaherty.

One reason is the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, said retired Maj. Gen. Bruce M. Lawlor, who helped create the agency while at the White House under President George W. Bush.

"If you look at the information environment on September 11th and the information environment today, it's night and day," said Lawlor, now director of Virginia Tech's Center for Technology, Security and Policy. "The department is largely responsible for that."

The information the center handles isn't always about potential terrorist threats. Sometimes, the center is used for tips on illegal drugs and other criminal operations. Last year, for example, the center played a role in intercepting a shipment of illegal drugs from Texas to Northern Virginia, as well as finding a suspect and victim in a child-pornography case.

And the system also works among the states. This year, for example, the center was alerted by the Florida attorney general's office that a threat had been made against NFL quarterback Michael Vick, who was released from prison after serving 18 months for running a dogfighting ring in Surry County. The woman who made the threat had moved from eastern Virginia to Texas, where law-enforcement officials tracked her down. It didn't take long to determine that the threat wasn't credible.

"She was scared to death," Lambert said. "She was a huge Dallas [Cowboys] fan. . . . She didn't think she would get in trouble saying that."

Meanwhile, the fusion center played a role this month in distributing a warning by the FBI that terrorists might be plotting to attack stadiums, hotels, and entertainment complexes. The bulletins didn't cite specific threats but came during an investigation of possible bomb plots in New York and Denver.

Lambert confirmed that the center also had received information that the Marine Corps base at Quantico had been among the potential targets of an alleged terrorist ring in North Carolina.

"There are a number of plots that have been uncovered as possible risks," Lambert said Friday. "We are grateful we were able to get ahead of them. They were very serious threats."

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.