Intelligence and Counterterrorism / Texas Fusion Center - List of Fusion Liaison Officers

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any and all records including but not limited to final reports, emails, memorandums, and referrals pertaining to any and all closed investigations conducted by your office of Homeland Security Unit (HSU) of the State Intelligence Team (SIT), the Texas Fusion Center (TxFC), and the Texas Suspicious Activity Reporting Network (TxSARNet). For HSU records, please separate them by major sections: Domestic Terrorism (DT) Section, the International Terrorism/Homegrown Violent Extremism Section (IT/HVE), and the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) Section. For TxFC and TxSARNet records, please separate them into similar groupings or whatever groupings you use by default.

Any and all responsive records sought should relate to allegations, substantiated or not, into criminal, civil, and administrative misconduct involving the HSU, TxFC, and TxSARNet employees, contractors, grantees, and programs, and include investigations or inquiries that resulted in criminal prosecutions, fines, civil penalties, administrative sanctions, and personnel actions.

The time frame for this request includes any and all responsive records from the creation of the TxFC up to and including the date this request is officially processed.

Furthermore, I would like to know the creation dates for each of these agencies, offices, and/or programs:

1.) Intelligence and Counterterrorism
2.) Texas Fusion Center (TxFC)
3.) TxSARNet
4.) iWatchTexas
5.) State Intelligence Team
6.) Homeland Security Unit of the State Intelligence Team

And, also, what are the agencies, offices, and programs that got rolled up into the ones I just listed.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request.

I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment. For files that are too large to be sent by email, please use an online file sharing service such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or your own servers and provide a link. Or you can upload the files directly using the link provided by MuckRock.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter.

I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Thomas D. Collinsworth

Hello ML Calcote,

Sorry about you getting the same request twice. I believe MuckRock's website code caused it to go again for whatever reason after I fixed the title. I did catch it in time and asked them to cancel the one with the wrong title. But after I later asked for a refund for the one they canceled, it appears to have then gone through for whatever reason. The site is a little buggy from time to time.

Speaking of websites, you might want to have your webmaster update the following page:

https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/intelligence-counterterrorism

It has ICT written as "Intelligence & Counterterrorism" in the title, and it has the word "division" in lowercase. It seems like people in government are very picky about things like that in formal communications but as an outsider their website is often all I have to go by—just how a lot of people probably think my last name is spelled with a "g" as a county and many roads in Texas spell it that way.

Besides all that, I'm really confused as to what the Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, and the Texas Fusion Center under it, does exactly. It sounds like you simply pass information along to the police other than some analysis. That sounds no different than what a secretary or 911 dispatcher at a police department would do other than having access to more information. I hope I'm misunderstanding the situation as it does feel like our tax dollars are being wasted here. Perhaps if you could answer a few questions I can better understand what it is all about:

- Do you guys not keep any records on any Texans or any individuals at all?
- What exactly do you do in the analysis part?
- If someone is reported as a terrorist, do you guys not keep records on that individual after passing their information to a local law enforcement agency?
- Would that local law enforcement agency then be required to keep a record that says: "From ICT" or "From the Texas Fusion Center"?
- What if someone reports a potential terrorist to you guys and you report it to the local law enforcement agency, but they fail to do their job to investigate that person. Then he or she moves to another county in Texas with another local law enforcement who has no idea about him or her, and they do a terrorist act. Since you guys never follow up on the investigation, shouldn't both ICT and the first local law enforcement agency be held accountable? Am I missing something here? It just doesn't seem right that you just don't follow up on investigations.
- Or do you keep tabs on that person no matter what (even if an investigation is closed on them from local law enforcement) and keep notifying different Texas local law enforcement when they come to their area? So is that person then followed and potentially harassed by the police and other government agents no matter where they move to in Texas?
- And if you do keep records on Texans as potential terrorists, is there any way to get off this list? It doesn't sound like it as there is never an official investigation on your side.

Also, could you give me a short description to each of the components of the Texas Fusion Center you listed:

-Watch Operations
-Intelligence Unit
-Texas Homeland Security
-Special Programs
-Criminal Case Support

They seem similar to what is listed here:

https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/intelligence-counterterrorism/state-intelligence-team-sit

Is ICT and the Texas Fusion Center essentially one and the same? Are there programs, sections, teams, groups, or whatever you might call it inside ICT but not the Texas Fusion Center?

Is there an organization chart you could provide?

Ultimately, the goal of my information request is looking to see if your division and the fusion center are effective in preventing crimes and acts of terrorisms. Are there any numbers, cases, or any records at all you can provide me to show this?

Thank you,

Thomas Collinsworth

Hello ML Calcote,

This is in regard to PIR 21-0554.

To clarify what information I am seeking, I'm looking for records that will prove that the Intelligence and Counterterrorism (ICT) Division and the Texas Fusion Center are helping the state of Texas to prevent crime and terrorism and are not just a waste of taxpayers' money or being used to harass innocent citizens. I'm not entirely sure what records would best prove that, but I'm thinking these items would be a good place to start and these are the records I'm requesting:

1.) The total number of individuals, separated by year, that the Texas Fusion Center and the ICT have communicated to Texas law enforcement agencies about since the date of their creation

2.) All organization charts created for the Texas Fusion Center and the ICT since September 1, 2007 and September 1, 2009, respectively

3.) Any annual, quarterly, monthly, or weekly reports that are given to the Texas Legislature and/or the Office of the Texas Governor for the last five years regarding activities of the Texas Fusion Center and the ICT

4.) Templates for contracts, memorandum of understanding, or similar documents, and the documents themselves that are current, done with local law enforcement on the information provided to them by the ICU or the Texas Fusion Center

5.) Any contracts, memorandum of understanding, or similar documents done with other Texas fusion centers

Also, besides the website, do you guys have any physical brochures, PDF files, or other introductory information that you give to law enforcement agencies, police chiefs, or individual police officers to explain what your entities can do for them or how they work? If so, I would like a copy of those files as well for the following entities:

-Watch Operations

-Intelligence Unit

-Texas Homeland Security

-Special Programs

-Criminal Case Support

-The Texas Fusion Center

-The Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division

As I said before, the goal of my information request is to see if your division and the fusion center are effective in preventing crimes and acts of terrorism while not causing innocent Texans to be harassed by local law enforcement. Are there any other numbers, reports, or any records at all you care to provide me to prove this?

Thank you,

Thomas Collinsworth