Firefighters as Intelligence Gatherers
Good Idea or Invasion of Privacy?
According to the Homeland Security Intelligence Guide for Fire Chief’s, as few as fifteen of the 30,000 U.S. fire departments formally train their members on intelligence recognition and gathering procedures. This number is strikingly low considering the fact that firefighters and EMS providers have relatively easy access to a number of environments without having to obtain search warrants. According to Bryann Heirston in his essay Firefighters and Information Sharing, this access has allowed firefighters to identify potential terrorist activities, often times unexpectedly for both the firefighters and the potential terrorists. U.S. firefighters are uniquely positioned to positively or negatively impact our current homeland security information-sharing efforts. For example, in 2007 the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) responded to nearly 380,000 calls for service. That was 380,000 opportunities for firefighters and EMS personnel to see and evaluate information that may prove helpful to law enforcement in identifying covert operations.
Making the case for intelligence gathering in the fire service is not difficult and considering President Bush’s statement in the 2007 National Strategy of Homeland Security (NSHS); “To best protect the American people, homeland security must be a responsibility shared across our entire Nation”, we should conclude that everyone from local government to the federal government have a commitment to protect our country. The National strategy on Homeland Security is purposeful in communicating that it “provides a common framework by which our entire Nation should focus its efforts on preventing and disrupting terrorist attacks”.
In reviewing the history of intelligence gathering by firefighters, the list of departments is far from sufficient. The New York Fire Department (FDNY) has pursued and is developing formalized reporting procedures within its organization, however, it is undetermined whether or not their personnel have been trained in how to recognize significant intelligence that could be useful in assisting the homeland security intelligence community. There are a few training programs that highlight terrorism indicators and other formats like “see something, say something” that have proven to be useful for the lay intelligence gatherer. Additionally, the Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) has been shown to provide for a vehicle that allows civilians or non-government employees to report suspicious activity.
Richard Blatus in his Master’s Thesis researches the efficacy of providing firefighters training in recognizing terrorism indicators. His analysis highlights several examples of how firefighters can be trained to recognize potential indicators of terrorism. He discusses an introductory awareness program developed by the Homeland Security Enforcement Training Center that offers a one-day program that focuses on terrorist related intelligence.
Blatus also discusses the potential unintended consequences of making firefighters intelligence gatherers. He examines the potential legal challenges that could prove difficult in allowing firefighters to gather intelligence within the course of their duties. He highlights several cases that show that this premise has been challenged and that in “all cases, the legal rights of firefighters to act in the best interest of the public at large were affirmed and reinforced.” So far, civil libertarians are taking the position that this is an invasion of privacy. Mike German, counsel to the ACLU states that this is dangerously close to the Bush proposal to have postal workers and telephone repairmen reporting suspicious activity to the FBI.
Smart practice or an attack on civil liberties? The discourse has probably not fully developed yet; what we do know is that homeland security is everyone’s responsibility and that perhaps by taking advantage of public safety responders and their access to information, we will be filling a gap in intelligence gathering that will ultimately make our communities safer.
