NORWALK, Calif.—It looks like a generic commercial building from the outside, with an unremarkable cement and glass façade, but within this building is one of the government’s primary means to target and identify terrorist activity.

During a tour of the Joint Regional Intelligence Center here on Sept. 20, as one of the pre-session programs of ASIS International, attendees got a first-hand look at how the FBI partners with various federal, state and local agencies and its effort to reach out to the private sector to gather and distribute intelligence.

While fusion centers are primarily Department of Homeland Security funded initiatives, stemming from recommendations based on the Commission Report of 9/11, the JRIC here in Norwalk is headed jointly by the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. Situated not far from downtown Los Angeles and serving seven counties in California, it is one of four fusion centers in the state and one of 72 in the country.

“We connect the dots here,” said Regina Canale-Miles, special agent and InfraGard coordinator with the FBI. In this nondescript room filled with computer consoles for 60 people and large projector screens displaying everything from media streams to national maps, analysts and investigators work to disseminate and vet various tips that come in on a constant basis.

“We can’t know everything,” she said, “so it’s important to work with so many people.” While partnerships with law enforcement and other local, state and federal agencies are a primary source of intelligence, Canale-Miles said that the center continues to reach out to the private sector as well as the general public to get involved and contribute information.

InfraGard, a membership-based association with more than 32,000 members nationwide, is comprised of businesses, academic institutions, and state and local law enforcement agencies. InfraGard is the primary way that individuals in the private sector can access and share critical information with each other. Canale-Miles said that the Los Angeles InfraGard chapter alone has more than 1,000 members who can share and access national information from the Infragard secured network.

The Los Angeles InfraGard employs a private sector program director at the JRIC who acts as a liaison to the private sector ensuring that information comes from and goes back out to members in private industry.

In the case of a threat to hotels in Los Angeles, for example, the private sector liaison would reach out to security directors or other executive management of hotels in the area with specific information about the threat. This is an effort to ensure that information is not only going to the top levels of government, but that it is also going back down to individuals on the ground as well as across agencies and regions, she said.

This “inclusion over exclusion” approach leads to collaboration not only between the private and public sector, but also promotes discussion among those in the private space. “I’ve seen people who are direct competitors talking in the same room because they know they need to,” she said. This focus on being proactive and identifying crimes of all levels is part of what this, and all fusion centers around the country, aim to do as they bring the appropriate people into the know.