Fusion Center Representatives Meet in Kimball

See something. Say something. That was the message.

The Kimball County Transit Service building was packed with local and state law enforcement, politicians, city and county employees, a group from Sidney, and citizens interested in learning about threat assessments and the need to report suspicious activity.

Nebraskans are of the mindset to mind your own business, but speaker Lt. Monty Lovelace, director of the Nebraska Fusion Center, said those days are over. He said people need to be vigilant, report incidents and ask questions. If it is a benign activity, the Fusion Center will investigate.

"If you want to spread terror in the state of Nebraska, you focus on cows and kids – agricultural and schools," Lovelace said.

Lovelace then talked about an unusual phenomenon that has hit Nebraska called "swatting" – false calls made to create chaos and get law enforcement to come to a certain event. The Fusion Center has received information about swatting and tries to inform area law enforcement and schools about possible swatting incidents to help eliminate the fear.

The Fusion Center partners with the community and investigates suspicious activity, from terrorism to any type of crime.

The Sentinel missile project was a hot topic because suspicious activity has already come to the area as a result of the missiles; the Fusion Center has an analyst in each State Patrol troop area vetting information that the public reports.

Another example of suspicious activity is recent land acquisitions near missile sites or unique groups paying cash for large land purchases. State Sen. Brian Hardin briefly spoke about LB 1120, his priority bill to "Keep the Bad Guys Out," but another bill exists that is proactive, and the bills could be combined to prevent unsavory groups from acquiring land in Nebraska.

On a personal level, Lovelace spoke about individuals' use of social media and online activity. His advice was to be careful, never use a public internet system, use strong passwords, and keep your devices updated. Always change the router's security features and passwords, and use a VPN. He also cautioned parents to know what their kids are doing on phones and use controls for their children. Lovelace said the number one risk to children today is social media. Children can go into their bedrooms, close the door and be subject to "bad guys" from anywhere in the world.

The county sheriff, local police and the state patrol share information that has been reported to the Fusion Center.

The Nebraska State Patrol, along with Hardin and Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly were instrumental in sponsoring the informational meeting on the Nebraska Fusion Center in Kimball and Banner County.

Fusion Centers are a Homeland Security enterprise within each state to gather, share, and analyze threat information.

After Sept. 11, 2001, Fusion centers were designed as a pipeline to connect the dots of threat information between all the different agencies – federal, state and local.