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Fusion Centers, where law enforcement agencies share information, have been secretly violating rights and laws. The first Native American Tribe to join a law enforcement Fusion Center was the Tohono O'odham Nation in Arizona, enabling it to share surveillance with state and federal agencies. The Fusion Center in North Dakota, during the resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline, secretly engaged in surveillance of water protectors. -- Censored News
Civil Liberties Defense Center Crosses Important Hurdle in Case Against Oregon Dept. of Justice
Government Overreach on Activist Surveillance Again
By Civil Liberties Defense Center, Censored News, March 8, 2024
After the events of September 11, 2001, a total of 79 Fusion Centers were created throughout the United States, with the purported goal of helping law enforcement agencies coordinate and share information with each other.
In the wake of the successful citizen challenge to the Jordan Cove pipeline in southern Oregon, investigative journalists at the Guardian and the Intercept revealed that Oregon’s Fusion Center had for years been amassing information and creating dossiers about activists’ work to challenge the pipeline.
In doing so, the Oregon DOJ violated an Oregon statute going back to the 1980s, that prohibits such surveillance. Very simply worded, the one-sentence statute (ORS 181A.250) prohibits all Oregon law enforcement agencies from collecting or maintaining “information about the political, religious or social views, associations or activities” of any person or organization, “unless such information directly relates to an investigation of criminal activities, and there are reasonable grounds to suspect the subject of the information is or may be involved in criminal conduct.”
When we learned that the Fusion Center had gathered and maintained files about our clients, 360Eugene and Rogue Climate, we joined the Oregon state court lawsuit challenging that behavior (Farrell-Smith v. Oregon Department of Justice, Marion Co. No. 21CV47809).
When we learned that the Fusion Center had gathered and maintained files about our clients, 360Eugene and Rogue Climate, we joined the Oregon state court lawsuit challenging that behavior (Farrell-Smith v. Oregon Department of Justice, Marion Co. No. 21CV47809).
Rather than seeking financial compensation, this suit goes deeper, to the roots, asking the court to declare that the Fusion Center is operating in violation of the law and without legal authority, and to issue an injunction prohibiting the Center from conducting such surveillance in the future.
Examples of the types of activities the Center surveilled were peaceful marches, letter-writing campaigns, and planning meetings. CLDC and our clients are concerned that such surveillance chills free speech and organizing, and that the little-used Oregon statute must be enforced.
Before any meaningful discovery had taken place, Oregon DOJ filed a motion for summary judgment. Last month we won a ruling from the judge, who put that motion on hold while we proceed with depositions and more in-depth disclosure of written DOJ documentation. We look forward to proceeding to the substantive issues in this lawsuit. Stay tuned!
Original CLDC Press Release on ‘Titan Fusion Center’ Case
Here’s a link to an article for more context on ‘Fusion Centers’
OPB Article
Before any meaningful discovery had taken place, Oregon DOJ filed a motion for summary judgment. Last month we won a ruling from the judge, who put that motion on hold while we proceed with depositions and more in-depth disclosure of written DOJ documentation. We look forward to proceeding to the substantive issues in this lawsuit. Stay tuned!
Original CLDC Press Release on ‘Titan Fusion Center’ Case
Here’s a link to an article for more context on ‘Fusion Centers’
OPB Article
More:
Tohono O'odham Nation statement of its Fusion Center, 2012
Tohono O'odham Nation statement of its Fusion Center, 2012
"Information Sharing, Tribal Fusion Center
A major program we are working on in cooperation with Inter-Tribal council of Arizona, and the
State of Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (ACTIC) is Indian Country
incorporation as an active participant with ACTIC, the State Fusion Center. We worked with
ACTIC to train 14 Tribal Police Officers to develop our own Tribal/ Indian Country Fusion
Center to be housed in the ACTIC facility in Phoenix.
"On the Tohono O’odham Nation we developed our own Fusion Center the Tohono O’odham
Information Center (TONIC). We have partnered with ACTIC and other Federal Agencies,
FBI,ICE and Border Patrol, to assist us in this effort. With grants we received we hired an
Information analyst and will soon hire another. Our long range goal is to develop an Indian
Country Fusion Center. But we first want to fully develop TONIC on the Tohono O’odham
Nation."
Maine Trooper blows whistle on Fusion Center, illegal surveillance of residents.
Black Lives Matter targeted by Fusion Centers, 2022
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