Michigan State Police details fusion-center role in cybersecurity, highlights 'Okay to Say' school tipline

Lansing — Captain Liz Rich, commander of the Michigan State Police Intelligence Operations Division, told the Michigan House Communications and Technology Committee on May 20 that the division combines the state's fusion-center activities with a 24/7 operations desk and a cyber unit to collect and share intelligence across public and private partners.

The fusion center, Rich said, gathers information from local police, private entities and citizens, analyzes it for timeliness and relevance, and distributes situational awareness and law-enforcement‑sensitive bulletins. "The purpose of the fusion center is essentially taking information, sharing that information," Rich said.

Rich described three sections within the division: the Michigan Intelligence Operations Center (MIOC), a 24-hour operations/watch desk, and a cyber section. She said the division supports topics ranging from critical‑infrastructure threats and domestic terrorism to narcotics and auto theft investigations. "We can do basic... targeted analysis, cell tower dumps to identify maybe a certain individual in an area that may be involved in a crime," she said, describing analytic tools used to support investigations.

Why it matters: fusion‑center work is the state-level hub that attempts to connect disparate reports—whether from small police departments or private companies—so officials can identify and warn other potential targets. Rich cited recent cyber incidents directed at water facilities as examples of the type of vulnerability the intelligence team monitors.

Committee members pressed officials on how local governments and private companies should report incidents. Rich said timely reporting is essential: "The best thing that we can do is we can encourage those that are affected by it to report it because that is the best, that is the best information that we can report back out to the other, facilities that are attacked." She credited the Michigan Cyber Command Center and the division's outreach for encouraging reporting.

Rich also described programs that extend fusion-center outreach beyond law enforcement. "Okay to Say runs through our shop and we have dedicated texts that are listening to phone calls and receiving text messages at all times," she said, describing the school tipline used to report bullying, threats and other safety concerns. She added that the program accepts web, text, email and app reports and that the tipline frequently mitigates threats before incidents occur.

Committee members requested metrics. Rich offered to provide the committee with the division's annual report and statistics on suspicious-activity reports and the top categories of school reports.

The committee heard additional detail about specialized units inside the division, including a Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management Unit (about two years old) and a Missing Persons Coordination Unit that works with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Rich said the division runs a fusion‑liaison training program (paused but expected to restart) that has held 22 sessions and includes roughly 341 partner organizations that receive bulletins and training.

Ending: Committee members thanked State Police presenters for the briefing and urged continued public outreach and reporting. Rich said she would follow up with the requested statistics and annual report.