AUGUSTA –– A Maine lawmaker has submitted a proposal to ensure oversight of a secretive agency that’s expected to play a key role in the state’s crackdown on drug trafficking.

Rep. Charlotte Warren, D-Hallowell, said the bill is designed to protect Mainers’ right to privacy. Her bill follows a Portland Press Herald report that found there is little or no oversight of the Maine Information and Analysis Center – or MIAC – and its budget. The report also found that an advisory board created to oversee the MIAC’s surveillance activities has not met for several years.

In August, the LePage administration announced that the MIAC will be used in the state’s effort to disrupt the drug trade. The MIAC is one of about 80 so-called “fusion centers” created in the U.S. after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to increase collaboration and intelligence-gathering among all levels of law enforcement.

Fusion centers have been a source of controversy. The agencies received at least $461 million in federal funding last year and an estimated $1.4 billion through 2012, according to federal grant data. They have been widely criticized for violating Americans’ right to privacy and for drafting intelligence reports on peace activists, political groups and, in one case, a California motorcycle gang’s distribution of a leaflet urging members to have a designated driver and cooperate if stopped by police.

U.S. Senate investigators and the Government Accounting Office have both issued critical reports about fusion centers, raising questions about the scope of their activities and whether the public’s money was being well spent.

The MIAC’s activities in Maine are largely covert. The center is overseen by the Maine State Police, but its budget, the information it collects and the exact makeup of its 12-member staff are not publicly disclosed. Special Services Maj. Christopher Grotton said in an interview in September that he could not readily provide the center’s budget, and he declined to specify which federal agencies had personnel working in the MIAC.

Advertisement

Grotton said the MIAC follows strict federal and state guidelines to protect Mainers’ privacy.

The center was set up to operate with input from a three-member advisory board that includes Daniel Wathen, a former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Wathen told the Press Herald that years have passed since the board met to evaluate the center’s activities.

“It was rather hard to get your hands around what they were actually doing,” Wathen recalled.

Rep. Warren, in a media statement, said her proposal will empower the advisory board “to balance the enforcement goals with the rights of people they are investigating.”

“We all want to stop drug addiction, and at the same time be mindful of privacy rights of the Maine people,” Warren said. “I had never heard of MIAC, or the ‘fusion center’ as it’s called. In doing some research, I found little or no information on the group’s authority and oversight.”

Warren’s proposal must first clear the Legislative Council, which is set to meet Thursday to vote on roughly 400 bills proposed for the upcoming legislative session. An affirmative vote means Warren’s bill would be accepted in the next session. If the council declines to advance her proposal, she will have a chance to appeal in November.

Warren is a member of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee and also the Judiciary Committee.

 


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.