In May 2009, two black men visiting the Mall of America drew the suspicions of a mall security employee as they strolled through the attractions with a video camera. This animation displays the observations of the security guard as written in the mall's "Suspicious Activity Events Log" and noted with a map of the mall in the incident report.
Data & Graphics
In the wake of 9/11 , the U.S. government radically rethought how it ensures the safety of its citizens. From 2003 to 2011, Congress poured money into the newly created Department of Homeland Security, which grew from a handful of employees to thousands upon thousands. The boost in homeland security spending was aimed at aggressively preventing every possible terrorist threat. Privacy advocates, however, questioned whether the emphasis on perpetual vigilance and expanded surveillance really made us safer.
NPR News Investigations and the Center for Investigative Reporting analyzed 125 reports of shoppers and incidents at Mall of America that mall security personnel and local police identified as suspicious persons or activities potentially related to terrorism. The documents included personal information on the subjects, as well as detailed incident narratives written by mall security guards or local police officers.
Learn about fusion centers, intelligence-sharing offices run by the Department of Homeland Security, and chart where the country’s fusion centers are located, in an interview with Lt. Tom Monahan, director of the Southern Nevada Counter-Terrorism Center.