New York Fusion Center Requests Identity of Public Intelligence Sources

Public Intelligence has received a message from Captain Douglas R. Keyer, Jr. on behalf of the New York State Intelligence Center (NYSIC) requesting the removal of a fourteen-page “Gang Intelligence Newsletter” from November 2009 that is labeled “For Official Use Only” and “Law Enforcement Sensitive”.  The notice also requests that we identify the source of our information.  The document in question, which was published March 31, is part of a series of monthly “Gang Intelligence Newsletters” that are issued to law enforcement personnel around the country.  The newsletter contains brief profiles of the Aryan Brotherhood, National Socialist Movement, as well as some information on identifying gang tattoos and graffiti.  It contains little information that could be considered sensitive, beyond some brief descriptions of code systems used by a particular gang.

Our primary interest in publishing these materials, beyond providing access to the information contained within them, is to establish and preserve a historical record of fusion center activity.  We have published dozens of reports, bulletins, and other information from fusion centers all around the country, most of which are at the “For Official Use Only” and “Law Enforcement Sensitive” levels.  Many of these documents represent the first meaningful examples of work from specific fusion centers that is available  to the public.  This means that prior to our publication of certain materials there was no known public examples of the work of many fusion centers.  We take great effort to acquire and disseminate these documents in the hopes of providing the average citizen with basic examples of fusion center products that their tax dollars are funding, but, of which little is known.

This is the fourth message we have received from a U.S. intelligence fusion center requesting the removal of documents from our site.  In less than one year of operation, we have received notices from NATO, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FEMA, as well as a number of state and local entities, including the Virginia Fusion Center, the Illinois Statewide Terrorism and Intelligence Center, the Rocky Mountain Information Network, and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.  All documents remain available and no information has ever been censored or removed from this site.

The New York State Intelligence Center also seems to have issued some sort of bulletin or message to other entities within the State of New York alerting them of the leak.  If you have a copy of this message, please send it to us or use our secure upload form.

Subject: New York State Intelligence Center report
From: “Douglas Keyer” <dkeyer[at]troopers.state.ny.us>
Date: Tue, 04 May 2010 11:21:49 -0400
To: <legal[at]publicintelligence.net>

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

On behalf on the New York State Intelligence Center(NYSIC), I request that the NYSIC Gang Intelligence Newsletter, November 2009 Issue, be removed from your website.  This publication clearly denotes ” Law Enforcement Sensitive – For Official Use Only ,” and is therefore not intended for public or open source reproduction or dissemination.

We request that the following information also be provided:
–  Source or acquisition of this document.
–  Notification that this document has been successfully removed from your website.

I look forward to your immediate attention to this matter.

Captain Douglas R. Keyer, Jr.
New York State Police

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