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“This is a proud day in Philadelphia,” Mayor Michael Nutter said Friday at the formal opening of the Delaware Valley Intelligence Center, 20th and Johnston streets. “I can assure you that preservation and protection will be our missions.”
He, fellow City leaders and other allies ventured to the 40,000-square-foot Marconi location to cap seven years of preparation and frequent frustration in establishing a security hub to rival the nation’s 77 other fusion centers.
Fully operational since January, the space is enabling authorities to form a nexus of intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination services, with addressing and suppressing terrorism and tending to weather-related woes and other emergencies as their top tasks.
“We have the same mission as our country’s other such sites,” Chief of Staff and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison said, a nod to their predecessors’ linking atypical gatherers of intelligence such as colleges and universities, private businesses and public health organizations with law enforcement agencies. “With our progress thus far, we have eliminated any potential barriers to communication.”
Having accomplished that, the overseers are stressing the strengthening of Berks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties; Delaware’s New Castle County; Maryland’s Cecil County; and New Jersey’s Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties by implementing an “All Crimes Model” that promises the prompt acquisition of means to combat “designated adversaries with assurance,” according to the U.S. Army’s System of Systems Security Integration Initiative. The military branch adopted a consortium shortly after the 9/11 attacks, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security suggesting fusion centers as a counter to existing and potential plots to harm American citizens further.
“Many people thought this day wouldn’t come,” Nutter said of showcasing the $20-million venue, with $10.6 million coming from the federal government and the remainder from the municipality, as he acknowledged its 2006 origins and October ’12 inclusion in a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations report that critiqued the slow move from concept to reality. “Well, here we are and I guarantee you this will be the best fusion center in America. We’ll address public safety problems and will aim to keep every resident safe.”
To adhere to Nutter’s design, the center, with nearly 130 analysts, will operate every day of the year. Fittingly, the Philadelphia Police Department will have a strong presence through its Real-Time Crime Center, which joins the force’s Criminal Intelligence and Homeland Security units and High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Watch Center. Amtrak and SEPTA police units, the FBI and the U.S. Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security also are upping senses of security, with regional partner agencies having established themselves there, too.
“The center will support and enhance the activities of the numerous investigative, operational and emergency management professionals through accurate and timely information exchange,” Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said. “Throughout this process, the protection of individual civil liberties and civil rights will be paramount and consistent with all federal, state and local laws.”
Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony, the crime stopper and his colleagues headed to the second-floor Watch Center for further explanations of their goals. As the facility’s operational core, the area contains a video wall that monitors more than 1,000 cameras in the Philadelphia region, with land and sea covered, a point of pride for Jack Whelan.
“Four years ago we started a project called Operation Watch Standard, and that was to make the Delaware River safer,” the Delaware County District Attorney said. “Through our contract with [The] Boeing [Co.], through Homeland Security and federal funds, right now you would not know it but there are radar and cameras in Delaware County, along the Delaware River, safeguarding the people in Delaware County, as well as the entire region because we can identify a vessel coming up the river and determine whether that vessel poses a threat. The moral is the DVIC will protect people. Everyone involved has safety at the forefront.”
Though conceptualized seven years ago, significant work on the center began in ’09, when Ellison and others united to select the Marconi address, primarily for its proximity to interstates 76 and 95, the Delaware River and Port of Philadelphia facilities. They have situated their brainchild at the U.S. Army’s former Quartermaster Corps complex, a ’10 entrant on the National Register of Historic Places and a space the federal government shuttered 20 years ago, with relocation to Northeast Philly as the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support. Operational expenses will total $2 million annually, with federal grant funding allowing the City and the federal government to cover the costs.
Authorities noted the spot will not replace county emergency operations centers or substitute for state and federal investigative and response agencies. Under the direction of Executive Director Walt Smith, it will support public and private sector information sharing, intelligence gathering, strategic planning and tactical operations, with regional partners to come together for briefings.
“The Delaware Valley Intelligence Center will support a multidisciplinary risk-based problem-solving approach to proactively address terrorism, crime and all-hazard threats using a community-focused public safety strategy,” Smith, the commanding officer for the Homeland Security unit, said.
The uniformed figure’s stance appealed to 4th District Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., who on a recent trip to Maryland felt “municipal envy” over its intense attention to safety.
“I appreciate the notion that it’s important to be safe on Independence Hall, but it’s also important to be safe on Indiana Avenue and to know that neighborhoods will be made safer by this center,” the chair of public safety and vice chairman for the committees on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs and Appropriations said. “I feel safer than I did yesterday.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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