Words and ideas move faster each day across the Internet. Finding the danger signs hidden in that information tsunami is the job of places like the Fusion Center run by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is chairman of regional homeland security efforts stretching to the Florida Keys. “It gives us,” he told me, “the advantage of having real time intelligence information.”
The nerve center is manned every day, around the clock. From firefighters to the FBI, from the Treasure Coast to the Keys, from coastal radar to public street cameras and websites, it is an information hub.
Sheriff Bradshaw said, “We want to make sure all local law enforcement agencies in South Florida would have the necessary information.”
Harlem Suarez allegedly planned to bomb a Key West beach last summer. He was picked up by the FBI following an investigation that began with a tip into the Fusion Center. Bradshaw recalled, “We got information of a guy…said need to look on Facebook. He wants to be radicalized.”
Bradshaw is quick to note that all of the high tech tools at his disposal do not matter if residents are not alert and engaged. “Which brings me,” Bradshaw offered, “to San Bernardino. A woman across the street had an idea something was not right. All these Middle Eastern men in and out. Packages being delivered. People working in the garage until 2-3 in the morning.”
She did not call police. Bradshaw says it is an example of the importance of the “See Something, Say Something” campaign his office supports locally. It’s also a message being echoed by political and law enforcement leaders nationwide. Bradshaw said, “Our first line of defense (is) our own neighbors.”
He stressed that there is a fine line here. It is not a matter, he told me, of spying on neighbors. It is, Bradshaw argued, a matter of listening to your intuition if something truly seems out of place and then allowing law enforcement to verify any concerns. He concluded, “What is at stake here is our safety.”
