Emotions ran high and heated Monday evening at the monthly meeting of the Public Safety Commission at Austin City Hall.
"You don't care about anybody but yourself!" yelled one attendee as she was leaving the meeting.
The controversy surrounds the Austin Regional Intelligence Center (ARIC), also known as the Fusion Center.
The ARIC would bring dozens of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies together to share intelligence information. However, some are upset that the ARIC hasn't adopted a clear privacy policy.
"There's no private investor on Earth that's going to let you take that money and go start a business if you don't have a clear business plan in place," said Ramey Ko, the lone commissioner who voted against allowing the city council to go ahead with the Fusion Center. "If you don't have bylaws, policies, all of that flushed out."
There are currently more than 70 Fusion Centers around the country and a few of them have raised eyebrows when it comes to issues of privacy.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas (ACLU) and Texans For Accountable Government showed up Monday night to protest the fact that the ARIC does not have a clear privacy policy in place yet.
"What we're proposing is that we actually have a privacy policy advocacy committee, consisting of activist groups and stakeholders that have input that we report to, as well as the public safety commissio, so that they can see what it is they're doing and they can look at it and say, 'You know what? This looks to be problematic,'" said Assistant Chief David Carter with the Austin Police Department
Carter also says that APD has met numerous times with both the ACLU and Texans For Accountable Government over the privacy issue and the groups are meeting again on Thursday.
The Austin City Council is scheduled to vote on the Fusion Center on May 27th and the center could open up at DPS headquarters on North Lamar by summer's end.
