Las Vegas police counter terror threats and critics (data-mining, etc.)

[NVMojo]

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Inside a plain one-story building, across town from Clark County Sheriff Bill Young's office, is the nerve center of his department's counterterrorism section. It is an austere world of security clearances and data.m.ining software.

With several dozen officers and nearly $8 million in annual funding, the post-9/11 operation is evidence of the sizable role Las Vegas police are taking in the war on terror.

The department is one of eight local and state police agencies in the country with an officer permanently stationed at the nation's center for information sharing, the National Operations Center in Washington. It has four officers assigned to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and deputized as federal officers with security clearances to view classified material.

But local police no longer rely solely on federal agencies for information about threats to Las Vegas. The department itself collects and analyzes intelligence and chases down leads.

Those counterterrorism efforts have been lauded by experts and the FBI, but have left others wary.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nevada/2006/sep/08/090810424.html

[pitohui]

1. what happens in vegas is shared w. the fbi and doj

i often wonder how much time is wasted by dept. of justice confirming w. irs that such-and-such is a card counter rather than afloat in cash due to drugs or terrorism