Florida law enforcers open information-sharing center in Tampa
TAMPA (FOX 13) - Law enforcement agencies in the Bay Area are taking information-sharing to a new level.
The region's first Fusion Center has opened its doors inside the Hillsborough County Sheriff's District 2 Office, off North Falkenburg Road in Tampa.
It's being called the Tampa Bay Regional Intelligence Center (TBRIC).
Through the center, nearly 50 agencies share federal and local intelligence on crime trends and examine terrorism cases with possible links nearby.
Fusion centers were created in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Federal authorities began to realize much of the information that could have prevented the attacks was available to those who could have stopped them, but the information wasn't being properly dispersed.
The solution was to create centers across the country where multiple law enforcement agencies work collaboratively under one roof.
"The Tampa Bay Regional Intelligence Center allows us to identify those organized crime trends that don't really stop at those borders. They extend north up to Sumter County, south to Hillsborough, west to Pinellas and east of Polk," said Sgt. Joe Maurer, Director of the TBRIC.
The center currently has 24 analysts who monitor bulletins and reports from each local agency.
Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister announced the center's first success on Monday when two men were charged with running Florida's biggest stolen cigarette ring.
Operation Up in Smoke stretched across 15 counties and 10 judicial circuits, according to Chronister.
The center is where authorities first noticed a trend in robberies and burglaries of large quantities of cigarettes across their cities and counties. They began to compare surveillance images and tips in order to catch the culprits.
The Department of Homeland Security operates in a secure room at the center, allowing local agencies to have access to classified information.
Maurer said working in close quarters allows them to quickly find a Florida connection to any national crimes, or terrorism-related acts, such as the attack in New York City last November on Halloween.
Accused terrorist and former Tampa resident, Sayfullo Saipov, 29, drove a rental truck down a bike path in Manhattan. The attack claimed eight lives.
"That had a nexus here to Tampa," explained Maurer. "We would have known about that a lot sooner than we normally would have, and we would have been able to assist the [Joint Terrorism Task Force], the FBI and the Bureau."
The Fusion Center opened its doors four months ago. It will also be used to assess threats at major events, like the Florida State Fair, where hundreds of thousands of people are in one place at a time.