This is the third version of the Fusion Center Privacy, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Policy Development Template that was developed by DOJ in collaboration with DHS in the joint DHS/DOJ Fusion Process Technical Assistance Program. This version was further supported by the Office of the Program Manager for the Information Sharing Environment (PM-ISE), which is a component of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, National Security Partnerships/Federal, State, Local, Tribal–Information Sharing. It was designed specifically to assist fusion center personnel in developing a privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties (P/CRCL) policy related to the information, intelligence, and suspicious activity report (SAR) information that centers gather, collect, receive, maintain, archive, access, disclose, and disseminate to personnel, governmental agencies, ISE participants, and other participating criminal justice and public safety agencies, as well as to private contractors and the general public. Provisions contained in the template help centers comply with requirements of the DHS Homeland Security Grant Program Guidance, the ISE Privacy Guidelines, and the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI).
Version 3.0 will assist fusion center personnel in updating their centers’ existing P/CRCL policies to reflect changes in law and implementation experience related to the information that the centers collect, receive, maintain, archive, access, and disclose. A summary of the major changes incorporated is available for ease of use here.