ARIC Changes Its Course – a Little – on Privacy Issues

Building that houses the Austin Regional Intelligence Center in the DPS complex (Photo by John Anderson)

In statements that conflict with the contents of the BlueLeaks hack as reported by the Chronicle, Austin Regional Intelligence Center Director Lt. Michael Earley stated in an Oct. 2 meeting of the center's Privacy Policy Advisory Committee that ARIC purges information with no connection to terrorism or criminal activity after 30 days.

When asked for clarification, Austin Police Depart­ment Public Informa­tion Specialist Tara Long explained the 30-day retention period was a recent "self-­imposed" change. "The ARIC has implemented a new standard," Long disclosed. "When a [Suspicious Activ­ity Report] comes into the ARIC, the assigned officer will have 30 days to determine if there is a nexus to crime or terrorism. If after 30 days, no nexus to crime or terrorism is determined to exist, the record will be purged."

According to Long, the previous retention period was two years. However, there are numerous reports in BlueLeaks – a hack of information this past June from law enforcement "fusion centers" across the nation, including ARIC – that were determined by an ARIC ­analyst to have "no nexus" but that had been retained for longer than two years. This maintenance of more-or-less permanent files on people once thought "suspicious" was one of the major concerns regarding ARIC.

"We recognize that BlueLeaks may reveal that some records had been maintained on the Netsential server that should not have been retained," Long admitted. "Furthermore, we recognize that the ARIC needed a reevaluation of our retention of records to ensure we are in compliance" with both the center's Privacy Policy and federal standards for fusion centers.

SARs are submitted to ARIC by its Threat Liaison Officers, who include both sworn law enforcement and civilians whose identities are kept secret. According to a presentation Earley made during the recent committee meeting, there are about 1,400 such officers that trained with ARIC. Long previously told the Chronicle there were roughly 800 officers. The Chronicle will continue to report on BlueLeaks.