Doug Huffman
Banned
imported post
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1197041144284.shtm
[more before and after this excerpt, click URL for full article]
Question: Mr. Secretary, a question on a different subject relating to the Omaha shooting yesterday. I was wondering if you and the department have any concerns about safety at shopping malls. And also, there had been previous FBI intelligence about threats to shopping malls. Any concerns that you have about that, and any actions the department is taking?
Secretary Chertoff: Let me, first of all, separate out the story sometime earlier we had about the FBI, kind of a general awareness notification on the need to be mindful of security during the holiday season. That’s really a matter of common sense. It’s not a reflection that there’s some specific imminent threat. And of course, the story out of Omaha is not a terrorism-related story. It’s similar to the tragedy we saw in Virginia Tech. We do live in an open society and there are people who are mentally disturbed who will sometimes take violent action. Obviously, the malls are almost all owned by private parties, so a lot of the responsibility for security lies with the private companies that own and operate the malls, and of course local government and local police play a major role as well.
But we have actually been working with the commercial sector over the last couple of years to help upgrade their security, and let me give you some ideas of what we’ve done. This past fall, we held regional training seminars in 12 cities across the country to talk about things like IED and vehicle-borne IED prevention, and soft target awareness. We do work with the Commercial Facilities Sector Security group to talk about best practices and also convey intelligence and information about the kinds of things that are out there.
We also have our protective security advisors who go and visit various facilities. We actually had one, by coincidence, at the mall in question at the time of the incident, discussing reaction to IEDs and what you can do to prevent or reduce your vulnerability to IEDs. We had, again, given over $45,000 to this particular mall as part of a Buffer Zone Protection Plan, which resulted in allowing them to build entrance bollards, portable barriers, and communication systems.
So we are doing a lot with respect to malls, but I do have to say, at the end of the day, the joy of holiday time is the ability to get out in public, and we don’t want to sacrifice the freedom of movement entirely. So we want to have the right balance between putting in some prudent security measures, but also not so confining the ability to enter our commercial retail establishments that people don’t wind up wanting to go to shop. And I think this balance is one we have to achieve in partnership not only with local government and state government, but with the private sector as well.
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1197041144284.shtm
[more before and after this excerpt, click URL for full article]
Question: Mr. Secretary, a question on a different subject relating to the Omaha shooting yesterday. I was wondering if you and the department have any concerns about safety at shopping malls. And also, there had been previous FBI intelligence about threats to shopping malls. Any concerns that you have about that, and any actions the department is taking?
Secretary Chertoff: Let me, first of all, separate out the story sometime earlier we had about the FBI, kind of a general awareness notification on the need to be mindful of security during the holiday season. That’s really a matter of common sense. It’s not a reflection that there’s some specific imminent threat. And of course, the story out of Omaha is not a terrorism-related story. It’s similar to the tragedy we saw in Virginia Tech. We do live in an open society and there are people who are mentally disturbed who will sometimes take violent action. Obviously, the malls are almost all owned by private parties, so a lot of the responsibility for security lies with the private companies that own and operate the malls, and of course local government and local police play a major role as well.
But we have actually been working with the commercial sector over the last couple of years to help upgrade their security, and let me give you some ideas of what we’ve done. This past fall, we held regional training seminars in 12 cities across the country to talk about things like IED and vehicle-borne IED prevention, and soft target awareness. We do work with the Commercial Facilities Sector Security group to talk about best practices and also convey intelligence and information about the kinds of things that are out there.
We also have our protective security advisors who go and visit various facilities. We actually had one, by coincidence, at the mall in question at the time of the incident, discussing reaction to IEDs and what you can do to prevent or reduce your vulnerability to IEDs. We had, again, given over $45,000 to this particular mall as part of a Buffer Zone Protection Plan, which resulted in allowing them to build entrance bollards, portable barriers, and communication systems.
So we are doing a lot with respect to malls, but I do have to say, at the end of the day, the joy of holiday time is the ability to get out in public, and we don’t want to sacrifice the freedom of movement entirely. So we want to have the right balance between putting in some prudent security measures, but also not so confining the ability to enter our commercial retail establishments that people don’t wind up wanting to go to shop. And I think this balance is one we have to achieve in partnership not only with local government and state government, but with the private sector as well.
