# Fusion Center **Entity class:** State or major-urban-area information-sharing center ## Definition A **fusion center** is a state-owned and operated or major-urban-area center that gathers, analyzes, and shares threat, public-safety, and homeland-security information among federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, private-sector, and other partners. ## Relationships - **article-linked mechanism or framework:** [[wiki/Intelligence Fusion|Intelligence Fusion]]. - **article-linked implementation or program:** [[wiki/Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative|Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative]]. - **article-linked mechanism or framework:** [[wiki/Texas Fusion Center|Texas Fusion Center]]. - **collection route:** [[collections/The Civilian Intelligence Marketplace|The Civilian Intelligence Marketplace]]. - **counterterrorism architecture:** [[collections/Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and the Intelligence Environment|Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and the Intelligence Environment]]. - **source article:** [[articles/The Coming Market for Civilian Spycraft|The Coming Market for Civilian Spycraft]]. - **national ecosystem:** [[wiki/National Network of Fusion Centers|National Network of Fusion Centers]]. - **common partners:** DHS, [[wiki/Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], National Guard, emergency management, and law enforcement. - **related but distinct:** [[wiki/Joint Terrorism Task Force|JTTF]] and [[wiki/El Paso Intelligence Center|EPIC]]. ## Sources / Provenance - [DHS — National Network of Fusion Centers](https://www.dhs.gov/national-network-fusion-centers-fact-sheet) ## Civilian intelligence marketplace A fusion center receives and analyzes information from participating agencies and partners. The civilian-reporting architecture gives centers a role in reviewing local observations before wider intelligence sharing. Civilian reporting expands national awareness when observations enter a standard process of intake, review, sharing, and analysis. The same find, fuse, identify, correlate, geolocate, predict, and act-faster architecture appears under counterterrorism and broader homeland-security vocabulary. Professional training and reliable information handling make distributed participation useful. ### Marketplace sources - [[articles/The Coming Market for Civilian Spycraft#V. The Suspicious Activity Reporting Architecture: Civilianized Collection by Design|The Coming Market for Civilian Spycraft — V. The Suspicious Activity Reporting Architecture: Civilianized Collection by Design]] — October 2026 revision; immediate source for this entry’s place in the marketplace. - [Office of Justice Programs, Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Concept of Operations (December 2008).](https://www.ojp.gov/library/publications/nationwide-suspicious-activity-reporting-sar-concept-operations) - [Congressional Research Service, Terrorism Information Sharing and the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Report Initiative (R40901).](https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R40901.html) - [GAO, Information Sharing: Additional Actions Could Help Ensure That Efforts to Share Terrorism-Related Suspicious Activity Reports Are Effective (GAO-13-233).](https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-13-233.pdf) ## Connected marketplace roles The source article connects this entry with [[wiki/United States Department of Homeland Security|United States Department of Homeland Security]], [[wiki/Reporting-and-Fusion Architecture|Reporting-and-Fusion Architecture]], [[wiki/Fusion-Center Intake|Fusion-Center Intake]]. These routes locate the associated people, implementations, methods, and operational contexts in [[articles/The Coming Market for Civilian Spycraft|The Coming Market for Civilian Spycraft]]. **Collections:** [[collections/The Civilian Intelligence Marketplace|The Civilian Intelligence Marketplace]] · [[collections/Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and the Intelligence Environment|Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and the Intelligence Environment]].