Are fusion centers allowing for an invasion of privacy?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1883101,00.html?artId=1883101?contType=article?chn=us

It is feared with the prodigious amount of information shared within fusion centers that it may be making it too

easy for the government to collect and share data with numerous public databases.Organizations are trying to

pass bills to restrict fusion centers' access to data. The article says, "legislation has been introduced in Santa Fe that would prohibit any New Mexico law enforcement agency from collecting information about the religious, political and social associations of law-abiding New Mexicans. And in what would be a first for the nation, the bill would allow private citizens to sue law enforcement agencies for damages over the unauthorized collection of such data." I think this is a great bill because it maintains citizen's privacy. New Mexican citizens, as well as all other Americans, want to know that some form of privacy is kept about themselves. Especially since they have kept a clean record for all the time leading up to the present.

The article spoke about a Maryland scandal a few years ago involving undercover Maryland state police carried out surveillance of war protesters and death penalty opponents. The information gathered was leaked into public databases through fusion centers. That kind of stuff should not happen. One of the liberties of being part of the United States is supposed to be freedom of speech. Isn't freedom of speech speaking up for your own beliefs? If we speak our own beliefs we should not automatically be targeted by local law enforcement.

The article also reads, "the report, issued in late December, echoed some of the concerns laid out in earlier congressional and Government Accountability Office reports that warned of the potential for mission creep by the fusion centers." Mission creep is when there's an expansion of a project beyond its original goals. When mission creep occurs it usually results in a failure. We can see here that the result of this was very angry people due to their private information released on public databases all because the law enforcement was trying to broaden their communication through fusion centers.

This is not to say that fusion centers are not a great creation. The amount of money put into them may be a bit too much, but hopefully with the new "state of the art surveillance" the money will be well spent. Safety is top priority. As noted in the article strategic solutions for crime problems are solved through fusion centers. It almost allows a forum for these discussions to take place allowing a flow of ideas to enter which allows for great communication.