Can a single state build its own counterintelligence defense, without waiting on Washington? Florida is trying. Hosts Joe Sheridan and Jeremy Clark sit down with Florida State Representative Danny Alvarez to break down Operation Secure Florida, a bold push to build state-level CI capability from the ground up.

Alvarez pulls back the curtain on the gaps in local and state defenses, why 911 systems and law enforcement coordination need a hard modernization push, and how the National Guard and fusion centers are becoming frontline players in a fight that used to be purely federal. He makes the case for why states can’t just wait on Washington, how smarter classification and better training can protect critical infrastructure, and why civil liberties safeguards have to be built in, not bolted on, when confronting foreign adversaries and influence campaigns.

This is a rare, practical look at bipartisan state-level security policy in action: educating lawmakers, mobilizing statewide resources, and defending people, technology, and infrastructure from threats that don’t respect jurisdiction.

Topics: state-level counterintelligence, critical infrastructure security, foreign influence operations, fusion centers, National Guard, civil liberties, insider risk