The American Civil Liberties Union has issued a new warning about the growing network of fusion centers, where federal, state and local law enforcement officers collect and analyze information about potential threats. The ACLU warned that many local and state police agencies are expanding their intelligence gathering with little oversight. Many of these fusion centers collect reports not just on crimes but suspicious activity. Earlier this month, it was revealed the state police in Maryland had spied on peaceful antiwar protesters and critics of the death penalty even though the activists were committing no crimes. About fifty-eight fusion centers are currently operating in cities across the country.

Jay Stanley, of the ACLU: “Fusion centers are part of a much larger trend here: a trend of our nation’s movement towards a surveillance society where our every move and our every transaction, our every communication, is scanned and scrutinized for signs of, quote-unquote, 'suspicious behavior' and that that kind of vision for how to do law enforcement, how to stop terrorism, becomes a justification for really keeping tabs on all of us in our everyday lives.”