AUGUSTA, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- In one of the long, wide hallways of the state's Public Safety building, a pass card opens an unmarked door. When it shuts behind us, Lt. Scott Ireland opens a second door. This one has a sign reading Maine Information and Analysis Center. In some police circles, it's known by a shorter name: Fusion Center.
This is one of 70 Fusion Centers, one in each state and others in big cities. The centers were created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, to help law enforcement agencies do a better job of sharing information.
In Maine, much of the work of the center is what they call "crime analysts." Lt. Ireland says it involves working with a range of state, County, local or tribal law enforcement agencies on individual cases, helping to analyze the data and find common elements that may point toward a suspect. "Pieces of a puzzle," Ireland calls it.
The other half of the Fusion Center's work is focused on Homeland Security, and in fact the federal agency even has a full time staff member working in the Center's Augusta Office. Federal customer and border patrol us also represented there, along with other agencies.
Maj. Christopher Grotten of the State Police says the state and federal agencies work together to evaluate potential threats, and determine whether there us a need for any action in Maine. Many times, he says, the answer is no. He cites last year's terrorist attack in Paris as an example, saying that after evaluating many elements of the attack and consulting with investigators at the national level, they were able to tell some agencies and offices in Maine there did not appear to be any likely impact in Maine. In other cases, says Grotten, they have been able to pinpoint information that helps move outside investigations forward, or alerts private and public sector organizations to be on alert.
One of the people who works at the center told us "we are dot connectors", and said when high connect enough of them, you find answers.