DHS's "Buffer Zone Program" boldly discloses it is spying on Americans' in conjunction with local police.

New Jersey - In general, anyone can be legally photographed in public without their consent, courts have held. And there is no evidence that the DHS Buffer Zone program's agenda targets any specific group.

While the Buffer Zone tools are primarily assigned to help secure potential targets, they can also moonlight on routine police work unrelated to national security, police say.

“It makes for much better record-keeping and photo surveillance capabilities than in the past,” Closter Administrator Quentin Wiest said of his borough’s new cameras and computers.

As part of the program, FBI and Homeland Security agents — with permission from local police — can watch the surveillance feeds at the Regional Operations Intelligence Center in West Trenton. The operations hub, run by state police, is known as a “fusion center” that shares information across the intelligence community.

Public representatives not briefed on the Buffer Zone program — including elected local officials who must vote to accept grants applied for by their police departments — are discouraged from knowing where, how or when the equipment is used, The Record found. Even identifying the purchases has proved difficult. Freedom of Information Act requests by The Record for a list of equipment and locations of monitored sites were denied by Homeland Security because, the agency said, the release could jeopardize security.

The web of surveillance being woven by the Department of Homeland Security among local law enforcement agencies is part of the secretive effort known as the Buffer Zone Protection Program. According to DHS:

The Buffer Zone Protection Program (BZPP) is a Department-administered infrastructure protection grant program to help local law enforcement and first responders identify and mitigate vulnerabilities at the highest-risk critical infrastructure sites. A buffer zone is the area outside a facility that an adversary can use to conduct surveillance or launch an attack. The term is associated with identified critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR).

BZPP provides funding to local law enforcement for equipment acquisition and planning activities to address gaps and enhance security capabilities. The program brings together private sector security personnel and first responders in a collaborative security planning process that enhances the buffer zone.

Local police who participate in the program will have access to a shockingly broad array of personal information of citizens. Facial recognition technology, license plate readers, and stop light camera video feeds will all be funneled to a Regional Operations Intelligence Center where FBI, police, and DHS agents can watch the live feeds. These hubs are part of a larger operations complex known as a Fusion Center.

The following information is taken from a fact sheet on fusion centers posted on the DHS website:

“A fusion center is a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise and information to the center with the goal of maximizing their ability to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity.”

In New Jersey Oradell, Emerson, Closter and Harrington Park police have car-mounted night-vision technology and video and recording equipment that can watch over the Oradell Reservoir and dam — and the hikers and anglers entering it. West Milford can do the same around the Newark watershed. Wayne police are scanning scan the license plates of vehicles outside the Willowbrook Mall, while East Rutherford officers patrol hotel parking lots near the Meadowlands and the Federal Reserve building off Route 17.

Local police signed onto the Homeland Security network have broad discretion in deciding what to monitor and when to share surveillance feeds with federal agents. And when national security isn’t calling, they can use the equipment for day-to-day police work, such as enhanced tracking systems to catch suspects and better radio communication among officers.

Still, broader questions remain unanswered about the secretive program. It was begun by the federal government as a way for local police to help the anti-terrorism effort extend monitoring of possible targets in the post-9/11 period. But such rapid surveillance growth, done with limited publicity at best, has some civil liberties advocates arguing there’s no way to tell if privacy safeguards are being addressed.

Homeland Security’s representative in New Jersey, citing national security, would not say what information is being gathered, how long it is kept, or to how it is being disseminated.

Overall, Homeland Security has identified 1,849 sites to monitor in all 50 states, and in 2010 distributed $48 million to help do so. In Bergen and Passaic, 18 police departments have received federal grants totaling nearly $1.4 million since 2005 for equipment to watch over more than a half-dozen North Jersey locations.

Since 2009, law enforcement agencies in the counties of Bergen and Passaic counties have received $735,175, or 37 percent of the state’s share of money under the Buffer Zone Protection Program — one of Homeland Security’s primary grants. That is up from 19 percent over the prior three years.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/North_Jersey_cops_enlisted_in_anti-terrorism_surveillance.html?page=all
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/item/13730-homeland-security-uses-local-police-to-set-up-surveillance-buffer-zones
www.infowars.com/homeland-security-uses-local-police-to-set-up-surveillance-buffer-zones/

High-tech surveillance gear raises questions in NJ.
Local police signed onto the Homeland Security network have broad discretion in deciding what to monitor and when to share surveillance feeds with federal agents. And when national security isn't calling, they can use the equipment for day-to-day police work, such as enhanced tracking systems to catch suspects and better radio communication among officers.
"We can use (the surveillance systems) if there is a good reason," Wanaque police Capt. Thomas Norton said. For example, he said, video cameras watching pedestrian traffic around a strip mall or the Raymond Dam can be switched on when national security is heightened.
"I don't want people being monitored 24 hours a day; I have an issue with it," Norton said. "And we don't have the manpower to commit."
In general, anyone can be legally photographed in public without their consent, courts have held. And there is no evidence that the Buffer Zone agenda targets any specific group.
But there tends to be very little transparency in the new program about what's actually being done and who's in charge, said Michael German, a former FBI agent who has researched federal surveillance methods for the American Civil Liberties Union. "Where are the public guidelines? How do we know there is any oversight?"
Over time, the collection of video footage and license plate numbers, combined with emerging technology such as facial recognition software, could give the government too much information about where people go and what they do, German said.
"When people believe they are being watched they do things differently," he continued. "Is that the kind of society we want?"
The potential for blanket monitoring, rather than surveillance pegged to a specific terrorist threat or suspect, is where the line blurs between national security and invasion of privacy, said Ahmed Alshehab of the Council on American Islamic Relations' New Jersey chapter.
"That's the slippery slope," Alshehab said. "Where do you stop? It's pretty much open season on anybody."
"You know what concerned me: When I asked how the cameras were going to be used, I was just told 'It's part of Homeland Security,'?" said former Councilman Daniel Jurkovic, who resisted the purchases. "Not everything that is right for the federal government is right for the citizens of West Milford."http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/High-tech-surveillance-gear-raises-questions-in-NJ-4061287.php

DHS Buffer Zone Protection Program
The Buffer Zone Protection Program (BZPP) is a Department-administered infrastructure protection grant program to help local law enforcement and first responders identify and mitigate vulnerabilities at the highest-risk critical infrastructure sites. A buffer zone is the area outside a facility that an adversary can use to conduct surveillance or launch an attack. The term is associated with identified critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR).
BZPP provides funding to local law enforcement for equipment acquisition and planning activities to address gaps and enhance security capabilities. The program brings together private sector security personnel and first responders in a collaborative security planning process that enhances the buffer zone.
Buffer Zone Plan:
A Buffer Zone Plan is developed with Department support by local jurisdictions in coordination with CIKR facility owners and operators. The Plan helps local law enforcement and first responders:
Define the boundaries of an appropriate buffer zone extending outward from the facility and identify assets that may be targeted and specific threats and vulnerabilities associated with the site.
Analyze first responders’ terrorism prevention and critical infrastructure protection capabilities.
Develop preventive and protective measures that make it more difficult for terrorists to successfully target and attack CIKR sites.
Apply grant resources that enhance the planning, equipment, and training needed by local law enforcement to mitigate site and buffer zone vulnerabilities.
Strengthen partnerships among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial governments and critical infrastructure owners and operators.
The Department sponsors workshops, video conferences, and technical assistance to help BZPP participants become familiar with the wide range of methods and assistance available to secure their sites. Upon request from local owners and operators, the Office of Infrastructure Protection offers on-site assistance through its Protective Security Advisors and may also conduct a Site Assistance Visit to allow a more thorough site evaluation and enhanced federal, state, local, and private sector participation.
Buffer Zone Protection Program Grants:
To enhance the ability of local law enforcement and first responders to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure and key resources, BZPP grant funds may be applied to a range of prevention and planning activities to mitigate equipment and resource shortfalls identified during the development of the buffer zone plan.http://www.dhs.gov/buffer-zone-protection-program