New data-linking technologies are giving north Texas homeland security, law enforcement and emergency management officials a keen edge. The new tools enable investigators to search and link data by geography, and allows them to identify trends or clusters of events. Officials also use a mining technology to search and group similar data, providing a visual presentation of each data group.
Together, they allow investigators at the North Texas Fusion Center (NTFC) to search millions of documents and identify trends without having to peruse each file.
The NTFC is one of many fusion centers in the country whose function is to exchange and analyze data that might relate to homeland security threats. The NTFC is unique because it deals with all hazards - man-made and natural disasters.
The NTFC collaborates with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Operations Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the North Texas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Activity Intelligence Center, the FBI Dallas Emergency Response Network and the local FBI office concerning detection and prevention of critical all-hazards situations.
"We have a very strong focus on prevention instead of the normal response, recovery, detection," said Kelly Stone, director of homeland security for Collin County, where the facility began operations in February 2006. "That's what's a little different about us. These tools are really beneficial to meeting the mission and answering the needs that are associated with the type of queries and access that you need to accomplish that."
http://www.govtech.com/gt/print_article.php?id=126364
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