How Safe Are We? by Janet Napolitano & Karen Breslau

Author:Janet Napolitano & Karen Breslau
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2019-03-04T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

Shrinking the Haystack

Throughout much of my law-enforcement career, the tools of security were guns, gates, and guards. The theory was that we protect important places by keeping out the bad guys and run them down if they break through or try to escape. Prevention and prosecution of crimes were enabled by intelligence that came from two primary sources. One is humans, or HUMINT, for example from spies, informants, law enforcement, or foreign governments. The other is signals, or SIGINT, coming from wiretaps, digital communications (including financial transactions and other sources), and, of course, video surveillance. Once, when I was a US Attorney in Arizona, we actually hid a camera behind the terrarium in a white paramilitary gang clubhouse. As my prosecutors and I watched the surveillance video of our suspects, we’d watch snakes slither in front of the camera lens, sometimes obstructing our view. You’ll be happy to know we ultimately prosecuted members of the (aptly named) Viper Militia for a variety of weapons and explosives charges and secured ten guilty pleas and two convictions.

Today, guns are still guns, but our other tools have changed dramatically. Happily, I haven’t had to watch a snake video in decades. Our most important “gates” are less visible than people realize and are built from such advanced technologies as biometrics and surveillance devices, including drones, radio frequency identification tags, sensors, and, yes, the dreaded body scanners at our airports. Our “guards” rely on intelligence increasingly gathered through big data, meaning the collection, storage, and analysis of enormous quantities of information in search of patterns and anomalies that help law enforcement. In this area, especially, we have made remarkable improvements over the systems we had in use on September 11, 2001.

We’ve been able to do this in part because the period since 9/11 coincides with an explosive growth in digital technology that has transformed big data in three key areas known as the “three Vs”: volume, variety, and velocity. We track more information from a wider number of sources that pours in at ever higher rates of speed. As the cabinet secretary dubbed “Big Sis” by right-wing media, I can confirm that the Department of Homeland Security is getting better at collecting and managing data that identifies people and things posing a threat to the United States. We were far from perfect, but we were pretty damn good. There is also a fourth “V”: veracity. We tried to have greater confidence in the accuracy and security of the data we analyze, although that’s a difficult standard to achieve in the current environment.

The members of Congress who oversee the DHS budget visit the National Targeting Center for Cargo and Persons (NTC), but their constituents know little about it. I think they should. It will help them feel safer. The NTC is a large, tan building in a Virginia suburb of Washington, DC, not far from Dulles International Airport. It was created two months after 9/11 and has grown so much it had to be moved to its new location in 2017.

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