O'Malley: America needs more focus on homeland security efforts.

Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O'Malley stood behind the Obama administration's plans for fighting terrorism, but said on Monday there needs to be more emphasis on homeland security.

The former Maryland governor said he agrees with the approach the president outlined in a national address on Sunday against sending American troops to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. However, the president did not go far enough in spelling out efforts that could be taken to stop an attack on U.S. soil, O'Malley said.

Speaking to reporters after a Windsor Heights forum hosted by the AARP, O'Malley said the U.S. needs to focus on efforts like strengthening state fusion centers that collect and share information between the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, other federal agencies and local law enforcement.

The former Baltimore mayor also said cities should be encouraged to expand their use of surveillance cameras with facial recognition software that can identify and track people who pose threats. These tools will be important to stop homegrown and so-called "lone wolf" terrorists, like the California couple who shot and killed 14 people during a Dec. 2 attack in San Bernardino.

"Hopefully, this is an opportunity for us to re-visit a lot of those things," he said. "To honestly assess whether every state has an intelligence fusion center that can piece together the sort of disparate bits of information, whether the joint terrorism task forces are actually functional in every state to follow up on the suspicious activity reports. We all hear the term, 'if you see something, say something.' Well what happens after we say something?"

Such expanded surveillance efforts have been heavily criticized by the American Civil Liberties Union, which argues that using facial recognition software in public places is a breach of privacy. Asked by a reporter about civil liberties O'Malley said he supports checks on authority, including forcing federal law enforcement agents to get warrants before searching mail or online communications.

However, there are compromises Americans have to make to stay safe, he said.

"There's certain conveniences we give up," he said. "I mean, one jackass with a failed shoe bomb attempt and we're all taking off our shoes and standing in line at airports. The ready availability of combat assault weapons for sale in our country, I think, is something that we need to address and we need to stop."

AT THE EVENT

SETTTING: A forum event hosted by the American Association of Retired Persons at the Windsor Heights Community Center.

CROWD: Around 65 people

REACTION: The crowd applauded and several nodded during a portion of O'Malley's speech on strengthening social security. O'Malley said the key to secure retirement used to be a "three-legged stool" of personal savings, a pension and social security. "For a lot of people that stool only has one leg anymore and this is the wrong time to cut social security," he said to applause.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/candidates/2015/12/07/omalley-america-needs-more-focus-homeland-security-efforts/76948702/