Special Event Management For Law Enforcement

PART I - LAW ENFORCEMENT ISSUES

Times have changed dramatically within law enforcement. Years ago the focus was on the individual police office who single handily resolved anything and everything on his beat. As the challenges to law enforcement changed, law enforcement had to change is responses and its tactics. It had to start to specialize and to work as a team. In the past, when incidents such as a hostage / barricade / violence in the workplace type of situation occurred; police learn to respond with crisis management teams which included patrol officers, tactical officers, intelligence officers, bomb technicians, negotiators, crisis counselors, communications personnel, EMT's, and any other disciplines needed to resolve the situation. This was of course even before Sept. 11.

Today a new and different mission is challenging the law enforcement community. That mission is that of special event management. What is so different about special event management for law enforcement is its primary emphasis is on the planning phase instead of the response phase; the multi-jurisdictional nature of a special event, and the multiple disciplines that must come together for a major special event.

Gone are the days when all we had to do is to direct traffic at a special event. What is new and different in dealing with so many issues that are not law enforcement in nature but if not dealt with during the planning phase can become a police problem later on during the event. An example would be a crowd, which turns rowdy when the host committee oversold tickets, and the police have to respond to quell a disturbance.

While some cities like Washington, D.C., and New York have special events almost every day and have a great deal of experience in handling these types of events, no jurisdiction is exempt from them. Rock concerts, demonstrations, political rallies and conventions, government events, private events, parades, VIP visits, etc are just a sample of some of the events that police agencies could have to deal with. All of this planning is necessary just for the event to occur without problems. Now in a post 9/11 world, add the threat of terrorism to your event, and you really have your work cut out for you. Law enforcement has taken many lessons from the military. Military operations are planned out to the "nth" degree. When I was an MP Operations Officer, I learned two axioms in planning our battalion missions which I am sure are familiar to most veterans. The first " Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance" and the second is " If you Fail to Plan, you Plan to Fail". This would be good advice for law enforcement to consider.

When law enforcement agencies have been tasked with an event there are many things to do. First is to form a law enforcement/security committee to deal with issues that are the responsibility of law enforcement and security agencies. The event must of course be identified. Is it one event or multiple events and are they all on one day and are they all at one venue site or multiple sites. Once that has been determined; all those police and security agencies that have any piece of the action (jurisdiction) for all the events and sites need to have a representative on the committee. If the bulk of the events are in one jurisdiction, normally that agency will chair the committee, however all agencies need to be represented. If the event is designated as a National Special Security Event by the Secretary of Homeland Security, then a specific federal agency will be designated as the lead. Along with the issue of jurisdiction is that of permits. Which events require permits and which agencies will be issuing them? Have the event sponsors applied for permits to the appropriate agencies?

Another big law enforcement concern in dealing with special events is that of traffic and traffic control. How will the event impact traffic? What streets will have to be closed and for how long? What traffic control posts need to be established? Will there be special no parking areas designated for the event? And of course don't forget having tow trucks available to move vehicles during the event.

Will the event involve a parade? If so, is there a permit? What is the route and what streets will be closed? Have maps of the route been made and have they been distributed to the public?

A successful event depends as much on command as it does on advance planning. During the planning phase when it will be determined which police agencies will be involved, issues of command and control must be identified. Where will the command post(s) be? Who will be in charge and of what? Is the Incident Command System (ICS) being used for the event? If federal agencies are involved, will the National Incident Management System (NIMS) being used? Also don't forget the liaison to the other agencies such as fire, EMS, etc. If the event has been designated as a National Special Security Event (NSEE) has the Dept. of Defense been tasked to assist and if so, in what way. Have specific agencies been assigned the responsibilities for crisis or consequence management?

Critical to operational and event planning is intelligence. It is crucial that intelligence gathering go on prior to and during the event. Is there background information on the event or on the group? Have fliers been distributed about the event?

Is anyone monitoring press coverage about the event? Of course a threat assessment for the event needs to be conducted for the event.

After the initial planning considerations have started, next comes specific operational planning. What manpower is going to be needed for the event? How many officers and supervisors will be needed for the event and for how many shifts and how many sites? Which specific units such as bomb squad, SWAT, haz-mat, etc. will be needed for the event? Are there any reserve or auxiliary units available to assist in the operation? Where will the manpower stage for the event? Also will there be any training sessions prior to the event such as civil disturbance training?

Another issue that has become more and more one of concern is that of vending. Whenever a special event is held, vendors will come out of the woodwork. In most jurisdictions, vendors must have permits and may sell from only authorized locations. Many police agencies have vending enforcement units who deal with these issues on a routine basis. If specific merchandise is being marketed for an event, there is often an issue of counterfeiting of that merchandise. Some event sponsors will have a team of lawyers established to deal with those counterfeiters and will work with the police in these areas.

Another critical factor for special events is the attendance of VIP's. The planning for dignitary protection is very involved. Is the presence of the VIP what the event is or is the VIP merely attending the event? Does the VIP have a protection detail? Are they law enforcement and of course if so, will be armed. Or is the protection detail private security; which brings many issues of its own. Will there be multiple details? Will each detail have a motorcade and how large will it be? What is the arrival and departure time of the motorcade? Do you know the routes of each motorcade? Are post standers needed at any of the events due to the presence of the VIP's? Has coordination been made regarding hotels, airports and hospital for the VIP?

Is the event a high profile event that could be considered a high profile target? Has tactical response been considered. Are sniper teams, roof top details, bomb squad units, hazardous materials units, aviation units part of the operation? If so have they conducted their mission planning?

When the different venue sites were identified, have site assessments been done at each location. Have physical security surveys been done on each site and determination made for post standers and manpower and who will control access to the event? Do we have blueprints or photos of each site?

Another critical part of event planning is that of accreditation. How will access control be handled? Will law enforcement use their credentials or will there be special ID, pins, or photos used for the event. Will there be special parking areas and parking passes as well.

Events with international participants bring a whole new challenge to law enforcement. What countries will participate and what languages will be spoken.? How will law enforcement deal with foreign nationals and those involved with immigration and similar issues? Will the police have trusted personnel on duty during the event who speak all the languages that will be spoken at the events? Has contact been made with the embassies involved? Will anyone with diplomatic immunity be at the event? How will the police deal with a visitor who seeks asylum?

Will the event involve a demonstration or will there be a demonstration in response to the event? If so, does intelligence indicate whether the demonstration will be peaceful or will there be acts of civil disobiendence or violence? Is there a designated demonstration area and has the group applied for a permit? Are arrest teams designated? What jurisdiction will make the arrest and what are the probable charges? Where will the prisoners be processed and will they be housed if not released?

Now that you have considered everything we already discussed and have done all the planning necessary and considered all the resources needed to handle the event , add in the threat of a terrorist attack aimed at your event.

In part II, we will address those planning concerns for those issues that are not specifically law enforcement but can still impact on an event and on law enforcement and security if they go bad.

By Mr. Elliott Grollman, Maj. MPC USAR (Ret.), Adjunct Professor Criminal Justice, USA.

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Western-trained, Western-armed, enemies

By Ramtanu Maitra

From Iraq to Afghanistan to the Central Asian republics, Western militaries are finding it is one thing to train a local army, quite another to obtain its loyalty.

The US and British militaries have suspended their training programs for Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan after more than 800 troops from these countries deserted, and many reportedly joined militant groups, such as al-Qaeda and Chechen rebel forces.

According to intelligence sources quoted in the media, the deserters escaped with weapons, including M-16s, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), communications equipment, nightvision goggles and other ordnance items.

In Afghanistan, meanwhile, IRIN News of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs earlier this year quoted an Afghan Ministry of Defense report saying that more than a quarter of the Afghan National Army (ANA) had deserted since its formation in mid-2002. "Around two to three thousand soldiers have fled the ANA so far," General Zahir Azimi, a spokesperson for the ministry, told IRIN.

The ANA is under the supervision of the US Army, with assistance from Britain, New Zealand, France and Germany. Technical assistance to the new army - envisaged to provide security to Afghanistan's emerging post-Taliban government - has also been provided by Bulgaria, Romania, Canada, South Korea and Mongolia.

In Iraq, the Americans and British are trying to build up an Iraqi army, but it is an uphill struggle. An estimated 500,000 Iraqis have signed up for the new army and security forces, but more than half have been dismissed as untrainable or deserted. Among those who remain, their loyalty is frequently questioned. Many reports indicate that the army and police have been penetrated by insurgents.

Shifting allegiances

Desertions in Iraq and Afghanistan are particularly worrying for US-led forces for two reasons. The first is that the lives of allied soldiers are placed directly on the line by disloyal forces. The second reason is that some of these deserters are not simply leaving the army, they are changing sides and joining the resistance with their new-found skills.

Last fall, news appeared for the first time that Afghan rebels were buying sophisticated Russian and Chinese-made SAMs (See The Taliban's battle over the ballot, Asia Times Online, September 10). The report quoted an unnamed rebel saying: "A general conduit of the weapons smuggling for Afghanistan is from Iraqi Kurdistan, from where the weapons are transported through Iran to Afghanistan. The SAM missiles of Russian and Chinese origin are available at a cost of US$2,500 each. The main market of these missiles is Afghanistan."

In a September 27 article, "The Taliban's new face", noted-Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who met with Afghan officials, was told that the Taliban were buying weapons from local warlords and also across the border from Pakistani tribes. This official also confirmed the Asia Times Online story that the Taliban were in possession of SAM missiles of Russian and Chinese origin, which they were getting from Iraqi Kurdistan.

While the US military remained silent about the existence of these missiles in resistance hands, on September 25 another US military helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan, killing all five American crew members. The Pentagon summarily said, "There is no indication of hostile fire."

It is not difficult to understand why the Pentagon is cautious over what may turn out to be a bitter truth. Helicopters are the most effective vehicles in the moon-like terrain of much of Afghanistan. When choppers get shot down, it is really bad news.

It is widely acknowledged that the Soviet military was demoralized in the 1980s by the Stinger missiles supplied by Washington to the Afghan mujahideen fighters, who routinely shot down Russian Hind helicopter-gunships.

It is quite possible that the people now using the SAMs were trained by the US in the ANA, or in Iraq. In Afghanistan it is accepted that the resistance penetrated the recruitment process at the very outset, as in Iraq.

A part of the problem is that the Pentagon employs private contractors to train many of the foreign troops. This made it easier for the resistance to penetrate the recruitment process and get training. Since the private contractors are paid by the number of people they train, vetting of the trainees becomes somewhat less rigorous.

Most of these US-UK trainers are private outfits, often run by retired military officers, including three- and four-star generals. A few are familiar names, like Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. Other private trainers have more cryptic names, like DynCorp; Vinnell, a subsidiary of TRW; SAIC; ICI of Oregon; and Logicon, a unit of Northrop Grumman. One of the best known, Military Professional Resources Inc (MPRI), boasts of "more generals per square foot than in the Pentagon".

A new challenge

The growing number of helicopter crashes in almost picture-perfect Afghan weather in recent months cannot be explained away too easily. The September 25 downing of a Chinook is one of many. A US helicopter crashed on July 29 during a routine training mission in Bagram, north of Kabul, injuring the two crewmen on board. That crash came a day after a Chinook CH-47 helicopter was destroyed in what the military called "a hard landing" during an operation to hunt down insurgents in the south. In April, a CH-47 crashed in Ghazni province, killing 15 American servicemen and three US civilian contractors.

In all these cases, the Pentagon cited the weather, "technical problems", or a "hard landing". On the other hand, the resistance has routinely claimed credit for shooting down these choppers.

Prior to the Afghan legislative elections on September 18, Washington was expressing concern about the resistance-induced violence.

However, now that the elections are over, the US military is not showing any sign of lessening its hardline approach. A senior US Army commander in Afghanistan, General Jason Kamiya, said recently that using airpower to eliminate militants continued to be an essential component of US military operations.

This despite a statement by Afghan President Hamid Karzai that he saw no more need for air strikes to be used in the "war on terror". Karzai also called for a halt to searches of Afghan houses by coalition troops and urged the US military not to enter homes without authorization from the Afghan government.

SAM missiles or not, the US is having to do some serious rethinking in Afghanistan.

By Ramtanu Maitra, USA.

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