Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Conversation that we had in the first couple of hours,
non weather related is something that I wanted to kind
of continue to investigate here on the show. And joining
me to do that is the director of the Nebraska
FUSIA Center, connected to the Nebraska State Patrol is Lieutenant
Monty Lovelace, and he is joining us on the phone
lines today. Lieutenant Lovelace, thanks so much for being on
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, it's a pleasure, Emory, thank for having me today.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Okay, so this is going to sound like a super
one oh one conversation, but I think this is what
people want in the terms of like, how did we
just now discover that a couple of members of MS
thirteen were living in Omaha and how that intelligence got
to ice for them to be able to detain those individuals.
What is the Nebraska Fusion Center.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, hey, again, thank you for having me today. And
our full name we go by the NAYAK Nebraska Information
Analysis Center and we are one of eighty fusion centers
across the country and our sole mission is information sharing.
We receive, we validate, we analyze, and we disseminate intelligence
(01:06):
information to our law enforcement partners and our private sector partners,
and all of this is to keep everyone connected and
ultimately protected together and Emory Fusion centers are something that's
been around for a while. Actually, fusion centers started shortly
after nine to eleven. We found after nine to eleven
(01:30):
that there were silos of information across the country that
could have possibly prevented some of the attacks that we
saw that day. And what we found in the aftermath
of nine to eleven is that we needed to do
a better job in law enforcement of sharing information and
that is how fusion centers came to be. The Nebraska
(01:52):
Fusion Center was stood up in two thousand and seven
and since that point, in the last eighteen years, our
unit had as adopted an all crimes approach. So you know,
when fusion centers were stood up, originally the focus was terrorism,
but we know that information sharing goes beyond terrorism into
(02:13):
an all crimes approach. And that's the beauty of the
Fusion Center is that we look at threats that are
related specifically to Nebraska, because what a threat could be
in Nebraska is completely different in another state. So we
look at our Nebraska threat threat landscape, but we also
(02:35):
partner with other fusion centers and can share other information
across the country and really use that information to keep
folks safe.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's really important work that's being done and maybe not
something that people are directly associating with law enforcement at
the state level. We're speaking with Lieutenant Monty Lovelace. He
is the director of the Nebraska Huge and Center, or
as we heard in you know the full name here,
the Nebraska Information Analysis Center. One of the things I
(03:08):
think with we talk about ICE and information sharing right ICE.
For a lot of people there just now kind of
learning all the different responsibilities that they have because of
kind of the uptick and enforcement on illegal immigration in
this country. But that's just one of the different, you
know elements of you know, the information sharing that you have.
What are some of the other kind of you know,
(03:30):
entities or agencies that you may work with based on
information that you guys are learning that's happening here in
the Nebraska borders.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, that's a great question. Memory. We partner with a
lot of different entities, not only law enforcement, but our
private sector partners too. One of our key missions is
to ensure that we are protecting critical infrastructure and key
resources in our state. So that includes things like communications,
commer facilities, dams, water and wastewater, transportation, healthcare. We're making
(04:06):
sure that we're sharing information with those entities so they
can use the information and shore up things on their
end from a safety standpoint. And this is done through
situational awareness bulletins where our analysts work on a specific
threat and research what's out there on social media and
(04:28):
look at the databases that we have and share information
with those partners to ensure that they know that there
could be a potential threat to their infrastructure. We partner.
There are so many streats that are on a daily basis,
and we're there to network with them to share information
(04:50):
on trends that we may be seeing. Another thing that
we do is we work directly with our University Nebraska
Public Policy Research or on conducting behavioral threat assessments of
individuals that could pose risks and threats to not only
people in schools, but we network with our judges, We
(05:10):
network with our politicians, anyone that could be having a
direct threat posed against them. We're working with them, but
ultimately we're there for the public as well. You know,
we give capabilities briefings on a almost a weekly basis.
It seems like, and it seems as though, you know,
(05:36):
we're constantly talking to people about how they can report
suspicious activity, and we want to be able to do
with that with the public in reporting suspicious activity, encouraging
people to do that, and that can be simply done
by going to stars at stars dot Nebraska dot gov.
People can report suspicious activity that way. They can also
(06:00):
in an email directly to the Nebraska Fusion Center at
Nefusion Center at Nebraska dot gov. So there's many ways
that we can network not only with our law enforcement
private sector partners, but also the public as well.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Very very interesting, Lieutenant Monty Lovelace, who's the director of
the Nebraska Information Analysis Center, the Fusion Center. With all
this information and all crimes, I think a lot of
people are hearing about this or learning about it for
the first time. My you know, next question would be,
you know, we're talking specifically today about the MS thirteen
(06:35):
gang member arrests that took place in Omaha yesterday, and
I think a lot of people in tomorrow are like, wow,
I had no idea, are we safe here? And what
kind of information you know on a local level, is
it the Nebraska State Patrol Is it, you know, our
local Omaha Police Department? Is it somebody else who's you know,
learning about this stuff. If someone is concerned about the
(06:56):
public safety situation when they hear about something like this,
even though the enforcement is there, what would be your
answer to the constant work that you guys are doing
in your office to try to make sure that Nebraska
is the safest it can possibly be.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Well, I can tell you an answer to that question, Emory.
I see on a daily basis the top notch communication
that occurs between our law enforcement partners across the state,
the NAYAK. We facilitate information sharing meetings, we facilitate situational
awareness bulletins. But it's a two way street and we
(07:32):
have so many great partners out there. Douglas County and
Omaha Police Department are both partners. They both engage with
the NAYAK. I can tell you that there are people
constantly talking about threats in our areas and constantly talking
about ways that we can engage the public to thwart
(07:53):
these issues before they become issues. And it goes back
to behavioral threat assessment. If we are looking for proactively
looking for threats online and engaging our partners with that information,
it allows us to get someone on the radar that
could be progressing on what we call the pathway to violence.
And I'm a big believer in law enforcement, having been
(08:15):
in law enforcement for twenty four years, I'm a big
believer in early interventions and that can only happen with
people working behind the scenes to proactively look for threats
and then engage other partners as well. And I can
tell you we are very fortunate in the state in
Nebraska that we have so many great local leaders, so
(08:37):
many great local departments that are willing to work with
the Nebraska State Patrol. This is one team, one fight.
We are not down here to get accolades or rewards.
I've got analysts down here that are truly here for
the because they love their state, they love the public,
(08:57):
They want to keep everyone safe, and they do it
because it's their calling to do it. So to round
out this question, I think that the public should rest
assured knowing that while there are some things that make
the news and make things seem unsafe or maybe bad
(09:18):
in Nebraska, it's really not. There's really a lot of
people out there working hard, doing great things, talking together
for the betterment of the public and the safety of
the public.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It's great information. Lieutenant Monty Lovelace from the Nebraska Fusion
Center otherwise known as the Nebraska Information Analysis Center. Last
thing for you, Lieutenant, I think that a lot of
people might be more curious about the work that you
and your colleagues at the Nebraska State Patrol and how
they're trying to keep not just our roadway safe, but
our state safe as a whole. How can people learn
(09:52):
more about what you guys do? And also, as you mentioned,
I know you mentioned it a little bit earlier, but
how people can even report some things that they think
are a little bit fishy.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah. Absolutely well. First off, if anyone wants to learn
more about us, I encourage them to go to the
Nebraska State Patrol website and navigate to the NIAK portion
of that. It gives you some overview of what the
NAYAK is and what we do. The other thing that
I would tell you is is call us at four
zero two four seven nine four zero four nine and
(10:24):
set up a time for capabilities briefing. Come down here,
meet us, learn what we do. If if you're part
of an organization that you know you're you're wanting to
make a difference in your community as far as sharing
information and being connected from a safety standpoint, call us
(10:47):
and we'll set up a time to sit down and
talk with you. It's very important that we get people
in the mindset that if they see something, they say something.
And one of the big things that we do down
here as we really push the reporting of suspicious activity,
and that can only happen with building partnerships with individuals.
(11:08):
That's not going to happen overnight because I'm not naive
to the fact that some people out there may not
trust law enforcement. Some people may look at the Nebraska
Fusion Center as a base for domestic spying, and that
is not the case at all. Everything that we do
down here is predicated on a crime and we're looking
(11:30):
into situations that pose risks to people or a crimes people.
So we want to encourage people to report suspicious activity.
Like I said earlier in this interview, people can go
to stars dot Nebraska dot gov to report suspicious activity.
They're always welcome to call us on that line that
(11:50):
I just gave you that four zero two four seven
nine four zero four nine, or they can reach out
to us at any Fusion Center at Nebraska dot gov.
It's the Capital n Capital Efusion Center at Nebraska dot gov.
We are just excited to have the opportunity to talk
to you today, to talk about the capabilities of the
(12:11):
NIAC and hopefully to spark interest in others to come
down here and be a partner with us.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
This is great for information. Lieutenant Monty Lovelace, director of
the Nebraska Fusion Center, the Nebraska Information Analysis Center, We
thank you so much for the transparency today, Lieutenant, thank
you so much for the time, and it's great to
know that you guys are working behind the scenes to
make Nebraska safer.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Samory, it's been a pleasure talking to you today and
I really thank you for reaching out to us and
hopefully we can talk in the future.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Absolutely one hundred and ten percent, no doubt, and without
the Nebraska Fusion Center, we would not have had Ice
come and detain those MS thirteen gang members. So very
important stuff there, Hit it break, come back more on
the Way on News Radio eleven, Tin kfab and Ray's
Honor
Conversation that we had in the first couple of hours,
non weather related is something that I wanted to kind
of continue to investigate here on the show. And joining
me to do that is the director of the Nebraska
FUSIA Center, connected to the Nebraska State Patrol is Lieutenant
Monty Lovelace, and he is joining us on the phone
lines today. Lieutenant Lovelace, thanks so much for being on
the show.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey, it's a pleasure, Emory, thank for having me today.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Okay, so this is going to sound like a super
one oh one conversation, but I think this is what
people want in the terms of like, how did we
just now discover that a couple of members of MS
thirteen were living in Omaha and how that intelligence got
to ice for them to be able to detain those individuals.
What is the Nebraska Fusion Center.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, hey, again, thank you for having me today. And
our full name we go by the NAYAK Nebraska Information
Analysis Center and we are one of eighty fusion centers
across the country and our sole mission is information sharing.
We receive, we validate, we analyze, and we disseminate intelligence
(01:06):
information to our law enforcement partners and our private sector partners,
and all of this is to keep everyone connected and
ultimately protected together and Emory Fusion centers are something that's
been around for a while. Actually, fusion centers started shortly
after nine to eleven. We found after nine to eleven
(01:30):
that there were silos of information across the country that
could have possibly prevented some of the attacks that we
saw that day. And what we found in the aftermath
of nine to eleven is that we needed to do
a better job in law enforcement of sharing information and
that is how fusion centers came to be. The Nebraska
(01:52):
Fusion Center was stood up in two thousand and seven
and since that point, in the last eighteen years, our
unit had as adopted an all crimes approach. So you know,
when fusion centers were stood up, originally the focus was terrorism,
but we know that information sharing goes beyond terrorism into
(02:13):
an all crimes approach. And that's the beauty of the
Fusion Center is that we look at threats that are
related specifically to Nebraska, because what a threat could be
in Nebraska is completely different in another state. So we
look at our Nebraska threat threat landscape, but we also
(02:35):
partner with other fusion centers and can share other information
across the country and really use that information to keep
folks safe.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's really important work that's being done and maybe not
something that people are directly associating with law enforcement at
the state level. We're speaking with Lieutenant Monty Lovelace. He
is the director of the Nebraska Huge and Center, or
as we heard in you know the full name here,
the Nebraska Information Analysis Center. One of the things I
(03:08):
think with we talk about ICE and information sharing right ICE.
For a lot of people there just now kind of
learning all the different responsibilities that they have because of
kind of the uptick and enforcement on illegal immigration in
this country. But that's just one of the different, you
know elements of you know, the information sharing that you have.
What are some of the other kind of you know,
(03:30):
entities or agencies that you may work with based on
information that you guys are learning that's happening here in
the Nebraska borders.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Well, that's a great question. Memory. We partner with a
lot of different entities, not only law enforcement, but our
private sector partners too. One of our key missions is
to ensure that we are protecting critical infrastructure and key
resources in our state. So that includes things like communications,
commer facilities, dams, water and wastewater, transportation, healthcare. We're making
(04:06):
sure that we're sharing information with those entities so they
can use the information and shore up things on their
end from a safety standpoint. And this is done through
situational awareness bulletins where our analysts work on a specific
threat and research what's out there on social media and
(04:28):
look at the databases that we have and share information
with those partners to ensure that they know that there
could be a potential threat to their infrastructure. We partner.
There are so many streats that are on a daily basis,
and we're there to network with them to share information
(04:50):
on trends that we may be seeing. Another thing that
we do is we work directly with our University Nebraska
Public Policy Research or on conducting behavioral threat assessments of
individuals that could pose risks and threats to not only
people in schools, but we network with our judges, We
(05:10):
network with our politicians, anyone that could be having a
direct threat posed against them. We're working with them, but
ultimately we're there for the public as well. You know,
we give capabilities briefings on a almost a weekly basis.
It seems like, and it seems as though, you know,
(05:36):
we're constantly talking to people about how they can report
suspicious activity, and we want to be able to do
with that with the public in reporting suspicious activity, encouraging
people to do that, and that can be simply done
by going to stars at stars dot Nebraska dot gov.
People can report suspicious activity that way. They can also
(06:00):
in an email directly to the Nebraska Fusion Center at
Nefusion Center at Nebraska dot gov. So there's many ways
that we can network not only with our law enforcement
private sector partners, but also the public as well.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Very very interesting, Lieutenant Monty Lovelace, who's the director of
the Nebraska Information Analysis Center, the Fusion Center. With all
this information and all crimes, I think a lot of
people are hearing about this or learning about it for
the first time. My you know, next question would be,
you know, we're talking specifically today about the MS thirteen
(06:35):
gang member arrests that took place in Omaha yesterday, and
I think a lot of people in tomorrow are like, wow,
I had no idea, are we safe here? And what
kind of information you know on a local level, is
it the Nebraska State Patrol Is it, you know, our
local Omaha Police Department? Is it somebody else who's you know,
learning about this stuff. If someone is concerned about the
(06:56):
public safety situation when they hear about something like this,
even though the enforcement is there, what would be your
answer to the constant work that you guys are doing
in your office to try to make sure that Nebraska
is the safest it can possibly be.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Well, I can tell you an answer to that question, Emory.
I see on a daily basis the top notch communication
that occurs between our law enforcement partners across the state,
the NAYAK. We facilitate information sharing meetings, we facilitate situational
awareness bulletins. But it's a two way street and we
(07:32):
have so many great partners out there. Douglas County and
Omaha Police Department are both partners. They both engage with
the NAYAK. I can tell you that there are people
constantly talking about threats in our areas and constantly talking
about ways that we can engage the public to thwart
(07:53):
these issues before they become issues. And it goes back
to behavioral threat assessment. If we are looking for proactively
looking for threats online and engaging our partners with that information,
it allows us to get someone on the radar that
could be progressing on what we call the pathway to violence.
And I'm a big believer in law enforcement, having been
(08:15):
in law enforcement for twenty four years, I'm a big
believer in early interventions and that can only happen with
people working behind the scenes to proactively look for threats
and then engage other partners as well. And I can
tell you we are very fortunate in the state in
Nebraska that we have so many great local leaders, so
(08:37):
many great local departments that are willing to work with
the Nebraska State Patrol. This is one team, one fight.
We are not down here to get accolades or rewards.
I've got analysts down here that are truly here for
the because they love their state, they love the public,
(08:57):
They want to keep everyone safe, and they do it
because it's their calling to do it. So to round
out this question, I think that the public should rest
assured knowing that while there are some things that make
the news and make things seem unsafe or maybe bad
(09:18):
in Nebraska, it's really not. There's really a lot of
people out there working hard, doing great things, talking together
for the betterment of the public and the safety of
the public.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It's great information. Lieutenant Monty Lovelace from the Nebraska Fusion
Center otherwise known as the Nebraska Information Analysis Center. Last
thing for you, Lieutenant, I think that a lot of
people might be more curious about the work that you
and your colleagues at the Nebraska State Patrol and how
they're trying to keep not just our roadway safe, but
our state safe as a whole. How can people learn
(09:52):
more about what you guys do? And also, as you mentioned,
I know you mentioned it a little bit earlier, but
how people can even report some things that they think
are a little bit fishy.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah. Absolutely well. First off, if anyone wants to learn
more about us, I encourage them to go to the
Nebraska State Patrol website and navigate to the NIAK portion
of that. It gives you some overview of what the
NAYAK is and what we do. The other thing that
I would tell you is is call us at four
zero two four seven nine four zero four nine and
(10:24):
set up a time for capabilities briefing. Come down here,
meet us, learn what we do. If if you're part
of an organization that you know you're you're wanting to
make a difference in your community as far as sharing
information and being connected from a safety standpoint, call us
(10:47):
and we'll set up a time to sit down and
talk with you. It's very important that we get people
in the mindset that if they see something, they say something.
And one of the big things that we do down
here as we really push the reporting of suspicious activity,
and that can only happen with building partnerships with individuals.
(11:08):
That's not going to happen overnight because I'm not naive
to the fact that some people out there may not
trust law enforcement. Some people may look at the Nebraska
Fusion Center as a base for domestic spying, and that
is not the case at all. Everything that we do
down here is predicated on a crime and we're looking
(11:30):
into situations that pose risks to people or a crimes people.
So we want to encourage people to report suspicious activity.
Like I said earlier in this interview, people can go
to stars dot Nebraska dot gov to report suspicious activity.
They're always welcome to call us on that line that
(11:50):
I just gave you that four zero two four seven
nine four zero four nine, or they can reach out
to us at any Fusion Center at Nebraska dot gov.
It's the Capital n Capital Efusion Center at Nebraska dot gov.
We are just excited to have the opportunity to talk
to you today, to talk about the capabilities of the
(12:11):
NIAC and hopefully to spark interest in others to come
down here and be a partner with us.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
This is great for information. Lieutenant Monty Lovelace, director of
the Nebraska Fusion Center, the Nebraska Information Analysis Center, We
thank you so much for the transparency today, Lieutenant, thank
you so much for the time, and it's great to
know that you guys are working behind the scenes to
make Nebraska safer.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Samory, it's been a pleasure talking to you today and
I really thank you for reaching out to us and
hopefully we can talk in the future.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Absolutely one hundred and ten percent, no doubt, and without
the Nebraska Fusion Center, we would not have had Ice
come and detain those MS thirteen gang members. So very
important stuff there, Hit it break, come back more on
the Way on News Radio eleven, Tin kfab and Ray's
Honor
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