Editorial: Is Westmoreland Co. DA’s fusion center right for law enforcement collaboration?
Share this post:
Collaboration is a great way to maximize public resources. It puts everyone together on the same footing. It shares information. It reduces workload. It prevents redundancy.
On Thursday, Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli announced an effort to promote better collaboration between detectives from her office and state and federal agencies.
Using $100,000 of a $1.08 million grant from federal American Rescue Plan funding, Ziccarelli wants to create something she calls a “fusion center.”
“I really had a dream since I was running for this office to have a fusion center here in Westmoreland County,” Ziccarelli said. “You will have agents from state agencies, federal agencies, local county detectives all working out of the same space on different cases. We would have an unsolved homicide room in there and also our new digital forensic lab.”
That sounds great — kind of like a pitch for a new crime show that is part “Law & Order” and part “CSI.”
But is it needed?
Not that collaboration is unnecessary. Different agencies should be giving aid when needed and should work seamlessly together when jurisdictional interests overlap.
But does that require thousands of dollars of investment in dedicated space when every agency involved already has office space — and when many agencies are low on employees?
Ziccarelli has shown herself to be fond of photo ops and being the person at the podium when a significant incident occurs rather than letting local law enforcement answer the questions.
That political approach makes one wonder exactly who would be in charge at this center. Would state or federal officials take charge if that were required, or would Ziccarelli run the show as “host?” Would that prove to be a stumbling block in getting timely information? Would it lead to a homogenized message?
Perhaps it is the word “fusion” that prompts that question. To fuse is to force different things together into one entity. Fusion is welding; it is melting metals into a new alloy that cannot be separated into its component parts.
Fusion is not collaboration. To collaborate requires opting to participate as well as the ability to withdraw if necessary.
And let’s be clear, there is a reason state and federal agencies must be separate from the county. Both could be called into play to run separate and superior investigations that involve lower levels of government.
The state investigated and charged former Westmoreland County Sheriff Jonathan Held; he pleaded guilty in 2022. Former Greensburg police Chief Shawn Denning has been charged with federal drug crimes.
Any collaboration between state law enforcement agencies shouldn’t be done in a permanent fusion. They should snap together like Lego bricks, working toward a common goal when necessary but easily separable as the situation demands.