Technology and computer networks are key to sharing intelligence. But at the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, systems repeatedly have faltered or failed to connect with some law enforcement officials across the country – the people the office is supposed to serve.

Five years ago, for instance, the office launched an information-sharing forum on the department’s unclassified network. Intelligence analysts at fusion centers around the country signed up to swap information and read reports on the so-called State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest. But many of the 3,000 analysts across federal, state and local law enforcement rarely use the forum.  

According to the department’s inspector general [PDF], just under half of state and local account holders logged in each month between January 2009 and May 2010, with about one-third inactive for at least five months. 

Recent internal documents show it’s gotten worse. In the two weeks following the operation by Navy SEALs to kill Osama bin Laden – when U.S. officials saw an increase in suspicious activity reporting – seven of 10 police and federal users hadn’t logged in to the forum, according to an internal document. Nearly two-thirds hadn’t accessed their accounts for at least a month.

Some law enforcement authorities said part of the problem is that the system is difficult to use.

“The usage level (of the forum) is nowhere near what they’d like, partially because it was rolled out without training,” said Mike Sena, president of the National Fusion Center Association. “It’s not a user-friendly interface.”

The forum, considered an important but neglected tool, has suffered for years from staffing and management disputes, according to internal documents. Sources familiar with the five-year-old program said it is withering – as fusion center analysts seek out information elsewhere or simply use e-mail.

“We keep trying to come up with technological solutions to what are not technological problems,” said Grace Mastalli, a former U.S. deputy assistant attorney general who led the Department of Homeland Security’s collaboration and information-sharing efforts until 2006. “The problem is with the culture and business processes.”

Last fall, the department’s inspector general reported that even with the introduction of new computer systems and networks – and millions of dollars spent on them – intelligence officers still primarily rely on e-mail and phone calls to share information with state and local police.

The office also has had its share of technology woes inside its own operation. One computer system that analysts used crashed regularly. Another software project launched in 2008 to streamline intelligence report production has been delayed. 

Called the Intelligence Production and Dissemination Suite, the nearly three-year-old program had not released a single intelligence report as of July 15, according to sources. To date, the Department of Homeland Security has paid about $9 million of a $13 million contract to contractors developing the software.

Homeland security officials declined to comment on the record about the program, but a spokesman said in an e-mail that the office would begin using the software to produce intelligence reports in the coming months. He added that the office expects to recoup upfront costs over time.

“Assigning value to this program at this point is like trying to determine the value of a car immediately after purchase, or the value of the space program prior to landing a man on the moon,” the spokesman said. “The total cost of the car or the space program should not be accounted for in the first two miles/first months or years of the program, but accounted for over the lifetime of the car.”

A slew of other programs have been held up or dumped in recent years because of questions over whether the office properly addressed concerns about citizens’ privacy. 

In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security killed a massive data-mining project intended for the office. Two years later, the department ended a domestic satellite program. Another proposal, the National Immigration Information Sharing Operation [PDF], designed to glean information from citizenship and immigration applications, is under review.

Frank J. Cilluffo, director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University, said the department needs to turn its attention more to building analytical capacity and training in the future, particularly as the federal government faces tighter budgets.

“We’ve spent a lot on technology and toys,” he said. “It’s about spending on people from here on out.”

This story was edited by Robert O’Harrow Jr., Mark Katches and Robert Salladay. It was copy edited by Nikki Frick.

The Center for Investigative Reporting is the nation’s oldest independent, nonprofit investigative news center. You can contact the reporters at abecker@cironline.org and gwschulz@cironline.org.