“All hazards” Approach Dropped from Austin Fusion Center!

We successfully lobbied for the removal of the overly vague public safety and “all hazards” approach language from the Austin Regional Intelligence Center (ARIC) policy documents. Thanks to all of TAG’s great activists and our partners Matt Simpson and Debbie Russell with the ACLU, along with the 11th hour release of the ARIC grant application documents (see previous post), we were able to hold the Austin Police Department to its word that the fusion center will only be used for criminal intelligence.

While the poor performance by the City’s Public Safety Commission, with the notable exception of Ramey Ko, in vetting the fusion center interlocal agreement and privacy policy coupled with the concerns over the suppressed KeyPoint report illustrate continuing problems with transparency and accountability in the City of Austin government, this is a significant victory for the people of Central Texas!