Critics Attack Intelligence Center

The Austin Public Saftety Commission got an earful Monday night as the debate to move forward with the Austin Regional Intelligence Center got heated.

Several outbursts from the crowd interrupted discussion but people were determined on voicing their dissatisfaction with ARIC, Austin Regional Intelligence Center.

The fusion center is where law enforcement agencies from the federal to the local level gather, share and analyze information about crimes, like gang activity, that reach out of local jurisdictions even across the border.

Groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and Texas for Accountable Government insist that the information gathered could be abused without putting in place a clearly defined privacy policy. The Public Safety Commission voted to move forward even though the current privacy policy still is not complete.

That is a bad move according Texans For Accountable Government Founder and Treasurer, Chuck Young.

"The potential exists for private personal information to be aggregated to the ARIC outside of the criminal context and we have a big problem with that,” Young said. “All these health records, financial records all this stuff could go to ARIC without any criminal predicate.”

Austin Police Assistant Chief David Carter says the public can have confidence that the information won't be misused.

"If there is some piece of information that we cannot take to a criminal court to get a prosecution on, we cannot use that information because it would be suppressed,” Carter said. That would violate the premise of this whole thing."

The fusion center issue will go before Austin City Council at the May 27th meeting.

Doors could open on the center by the end of the summer.

For questions or comments about this story, email james.irby@foxtv.com