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The San Antonio Express ran a story today regarding GEOINT 2009 and we wanted to share it with got geoint? readers. The story is about GEOINT panelist Police Chief William McManus recalled the damage at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, during his panel at the event. The story is a reminder that even though the horrific event happened eight years ago, it still lives on today.

Police Chief William McManus recalled the damage at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, while speaking Monday at a national intelligence symposium. “It was the most catastrophic, unbelievable scene that I’ve ever seen in my career,” McManus, who was an assistant police chief in Washington, said in remarks to about 1,000 people at the sixth annual GEOINT Symposium.

The symposium sponsored by the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation runs through Wednesday at the Convention Center. It focuses on imagery, mapping and other data collected by satellites, drones and manned aircraft, and touches on counterterrorism, diplomacy and human rights advocacy.

The symposium sponsored by the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation runs through Wednesday at the Convention Center. It focuses on imagery, mapping and other data collected by satellites, drones and manned aircraft, and touches on counterterrorism, diplomacy and human rights advocacy.

McManus spoke at a panel discussion on federal, state and local law enforcement agencies sharing intelligence.

Information often is treated as classified to protect someone’s career and not the public, he said, but the Police Department has found classified briefings with other agencies useful.

Bart Johnson, acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis with the Homeland Security Department, said cooperation is improving, although problems remain with security clearances and interdepartmental connectivity.

“The federal government can only do so much in getting it down to the street level,” Johnson said.

Homeland security and Justice Department officials have formed 72 “fusion centers” — terrorism prevention and response centers where federal agencies work with the military, local law enforcement and private partners. Three are in Texas: Austin, Dallas and Collin County near Dallas.

Johnson said his department is making it easier for state and local officials to access data that might be classified by the military, such as new ways terrorists are making bombs.

“That will enable the center (to have) a capability to counter it,” Johnson said.

McManus said San Antonio has a fusion center in its “beginning stage,” and has forged alliances with local and corrections officials on the U.S.-Mexico border to help “track the flow of guns and gangs.”

More than 3,000 people, including academics and defense intelligence officials, are expected to gather at the summit to discuss a discipline that affects everything from military operations to navigation systems in cars.

Advancing innovation in geospatial intelligence, or GEOINT,” is part of the symposium’s theme.

Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, said the industry must improve on precision and automation, to avoid information overload.

“We’re going to find ourselves, in the not too distant future, swimming in sensors and drowning in data,” he said.

Tags: GEOINT 2009, geospatial intelligence, USGIF