What Is the Appropriate Role of the State Terrorism

Assessment System?

In determining the appropriate “role” of the STTAC, it was important to first establish what a designated state fusion center is and, equally important, what it is not. While the term “state fusion center” can narrowly refer to the STTAC in the context of it being a center managed by a state agency, the broader use of the term also takes into consideration the STTAC’s designation as California’s primary fusion center among other fusion centers in the state. It is this broader definition that this thesis, in large part, seeks to answer.

The STTAC’s designation as California’s state fusion center, like many other state fusion centers across the nation, is not derived from legislation, a Governor’s Executive Order, or some other statutory process, but by a governor’s letter to DHS and the United States Attorney General. While the STTAC’s designation in that letter as the primary state fusion center provides DHS with direction as to which center the governor wants information destined for the state to pass through, the title itself is arguably nominal in other contexts in that it does not signify the existence of any hierarchical structure or authority

possessed by the STTAC over the STTAS or its members. Since the STTAC and RTTACs are each autonomous and enjoy what is essentially a voluntary “horizontal” versus “hierarchical” working relationship within the STTAS, defining the appropriate role of the STTAC within the STTAS in the broader sense requires a collaborative agreement among STTAS members, especially if that role requires another center to relinquish some aspect of its sovereignty or acquiesce to another center’s role in performing some collective function.

a. Provide Strategic Analysis and Support

Based on the data points collected, which includes an examination of the historical and publicly stated role of the STTAC, the declared needs and recommendations of fundamental customers, a scanning of other state models, a comparison to methods abroad, and an assimilation of the widely accepted roles of the RTTACs, the appropriate role of the STTAC within California’s STTAS, succinctly defined, is to provide added value to the state’s STTAS network through comprehensive and reliable strategic analysis and support. This oversimplified acknowledgment of the STTAC’s necessary strategic role within the STTAS is supported by the current STTAS Strategic Business Plan Concept

of Operations (CONOPS) and State of California Homeland Security Strategy,

both of which take note of the STTAC’s intended strategic functions. Survey data from the RTTACs also calls for strategic support from the STTAC, including strategic threat assessments and statewide situational awareness, which is consistent with the types of strategic products and services provided by other state fusion centers to their regional and/or local partners, as noted in the author’s scan of other states. In executing that role, the STTAC must be capable of strategically analyzing intelligence and information obtained from each of the RTTACs, as well as other sources, and to synthesize that intelligence information strategically into a broader understanding of its possible statewide implications, while simultaneously ensuring that each of the other RTTACs and other stakeholders are afforded situational awareness and any related strategic analyses.

b. Serve As California’s Primary Federal Point of Contact Inherent in the governor’s designation of the STTAC as California’s designated state fusion center is the acknowledgement that the STTAC is intended to serve as California’s primary point of contact for immediate homeland security related information from the federal government. This intended role is supported by literature calling upon states to make such a designation, the governor’s response letter to DHS, and other state fusion centers performing the same role or function. To fulfill this role, the STTAC must inherently be capable of doing more than just “receive” information from the federal government and must also have the capacity to “doing something” with that information once it is received. Accordingly, the role of the STTAC must include not only the ability to receive priority information from the federal government, day or night, but the strategic and logistical capabilities of determining to whom and where that information needs to go and how to get it there in the most efficient and timely manner.

c. Keep Key State Officials and State Agencies Informed In accordance with the State of California’s Homeland Security

Strategy and the STTAS CONOPS, the STTAC must be capable of providing key

state officials, including the governor, state homeland security advisor, legislature, and other constitutional officers, with strategic information they may require in making timely statewide decisions in the best interests of the safety of California and its citizens. The STTAC’s performance of this role is readily acknowledged and supported by the RTTACs and is consistent with the role performed by other state fusion centers. Further, this comparative analysis of joint intelligence centers in the United Kingdom and Germany highlighted the importance of keeping key leaders informed.

As the only fusion center in California managed by a state agency and principally staffed by personnel from state agencies, the STTAC’s role must also include ensuring that state departments and agencies are provided with

situation awareness on strategic intelligence and information germane to their mission or the safety of their employees. This role is consistent with the responsibilities executed by other state fusion centers and is supported by survey data collected by the RTTACs that failed to identify state agencies as a primary customer of the RTTACs. Given that state agencies and employees are inherently located in each of the RTTACs’ operational regions and some state departments are also represented within the RTTACs themselves, it is appropriate for the STTAC to clarify this role in consultation with the RTTACs collaboratively to ensure that state agencies throughout California are provided with adequate situational awareness regarding statewide or regionally specific threats.

d. Serve As an Active Participant, Facilitator, and/or Organizer Within the STTAS

As highlighted in the opening comments to this question, one of the essential and perhaps undocumented roles of the STTAC is to be an active participant and collaborator within California’s STTAS. As previously mentioned, the STTAC’s designation as the primary state fusion center in the context of its relationship with other STTAS participants is largely a nominal or honorary title versus authoritative. While the importance of collaboration is highlighted in greater detail in the author’s response to subsequent research questions, one of the important roles the STTAC must play is to be an active participant, equal partner, and at times, a facilitator and/or organizer in seeking to strengthen the collaborative working relationship between the STTAC, RTTACs, and other stakeholders. Ultimately, collaboration is the fundamental adhesive that bonds together the combined efforts of the STTAC and RTTACs as part of a unified STTAS. With that understanding in mind, the role of the STTAC must be centered on strengthening the overall STTAS collaboration by supporting the RTTACs’ strategic intelligence needs and respecting their operational role within their respective regions. This informal facilitative role is similar to one exercised

by state fusion centers in Florida and Ohio in their efforts to bring all of the parties together as part of a more unified and synchronized statewide system.

2. What Is the Appropriate Mission for the State Terrorism Threat