National "Dragnet" Connecting at State, Local Level

Squirtle tips us to a Washington Post story about the progress and expansion of N-DEx - the National Data Exchange. Developed by Raytheon for a mere $85 million, N-DEx is hailed as a unified intelligence sharing system, which will allow agencies to share and analyze data from all levels of law enforcement. From the Post: "Three decades ago, Congress imposed limits on domestic intelligence activity after revelations that the FBI, Army, local police and others had misused their authority for years to build troves of personal dossiers and monitor political activists and other law-abiding Americans. Since those reforms, police and federal authorities have observed a wall between law enforcement information-gathering, relating to crimes and prosecutions, and more open-ended intelligence that relates to national security and counterterrorism. That wall is fast eroding following the passage of laws expanding surveillance authorities, the push for information-sharing networks, and the expectation that local and state police will play larger roles as national security sentinels."

First thought.

[techno-vampire]

When I saw the title, my first thought was that the article was about the old Dragnet TV show and Sgt. Joe Friday. I must admit that I was very disappointed to find out I was wrong.

SMRT

[kidsizedcoffin]

FTA: "Some officials avoid using the term intelligence because of those sensitivities." Well that certainly is a relief.

Whereas I

[smittyoneeach]

...was speculating about some political/social networking site for extremist drag queens; a sort or "Ru Paul meets Ron Paul".
Should I get more sleep?

SCMODS

[joeslugg]

Elwood: "I'll bet they've got SCMODS."

Jake: "SCMODS?"

Elwood:
"State.
  County.
  Municipal.
  Offender.
  Data.
  System."