LANSING – Homeland security will get a makeover when police agencies open two fusion centers that will help share information state-wide.

The fusion centers will serve as centralized databases with access for every law enforcement agency. It is intended to ensure that state and local police are sharing information, and it will help actively identify threats before they are carried out.

“This absolutely should work,” said Tom Skowronski, Leelanau County emergency services coordinator. “There is a real need for all law enforcement agencies to communicate and share intelligence. That is what it’s all about.”

State Police Director of Public Affairs said, “The role of the fusion center will be to analyze that information coming in, determine if there is a threat, determine who needs to know this information, then pass it back out to those individuals.”

Some people fear the invasion of privacy by the use of personal data and surveillance that will be essential to the centers’ operation.

There are also some questions about whether fusion centers are needed.

“Some people may say, ‘Well gee, haven’t you been doing that all along?’ Well it doesn’t happen as smoothly as we’d like,” said Robert Noordhoek, special adviser for the Michigan Sheriffs’ Association.

Many local agencies are expected benefit from the information gained from the fusion centers, but Leelanau County Sheriff Michael Oltersdorf said they will have little effect on his county.

“Because we’re such a small county, we don’t have any turf battles,” said Sheriff Oltersdorf. “I don’t see the lines of communication being hindered in any way. We already have a good network built and in place.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are promoting such centers nationally, and by 2008, every state should have one, said Akans. Illinois, Maryland and New York are among the nine states that currently have fusion centers.

Michigan plans to have one center at the State Police headquarters in East Lansing. The second center will be in Southeast Michigan, most likely, Detroit, said Akans.

The centers will open as early as the end of this year or early in 2007. Federal Homeland Security grants will fund both of them.

“The centers will be a major benefit and helpful tool for both public safety and homeland security,” said Akans.

 “We especially encourage families with young children to establish sleep routines,” says Jane Sundmacher of the Health Department of Northwest Michigan, which serves Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet and Ostego counties.