County security stepped up greatly since terrorist attacks
When four passenger planes, turned weapons, forever changed the way Americans would view the world and their nation’s security, local emergency officials were trying to get by with what they had and operate as effectively as possible. Now, five years since the worst terrorist attack ever on American soil steeled the nation’s resolve, area officials have girded themselves against security threats as well as other hazards in a massive overhaul of intergovernmental cooperation and conventional wisdom.
“Then security was taken for granted,” Guy Napolillo, Fayette County 911 director said Thursday, as he reflected on the drastic changes to local emergency response since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “Now we get involved in a lot of things that at that time might not have been perceived as threats. Now anywhere there is a large gathering of people becomes a potential threat.”
In the years since the attack, across the country on all levels of government, security has replaced all other concerns as the primary objective of everyone from politicians to emergency officials.
According to The Associated Press, the government has increased spending on security every year since the terrorist attacks, this year spending about $55 billion in security costs, up from about $17 billion in 2001.
Napolillo, sitting in an office in the County’s Emergency Management Agency protected by several barriers from intrusion including a keyed elevator entrance and a metal detector, said Fayette County began meeting with 12 other counties in the southwestern corner of the state in 1998, three years prior to the terrorist attacks. Napolillo said the county officials met to discuss potential threats in the region, how to network area resources and plan for possible problems.
“We were ahead of the curve,” Napolillo said. “Those types of regional meetings were immediately implemented across the state after the attacks and now the emergency meetings have been adopted as national policy.”
Roy Shipley, director of the Fayette County Emergency Management Agency, said the increased funding since the Sept. 11 attacks has been a large help, increasing funding for training and supplies for potential security threats.
“We now get Homeland Security money and have access to everything we might need,” Shipley said.
Napolillo explained that while the county does not have bomb detection equipment, it is ready for local use out of Allegheny County, should the need arise.
“It is a phone call away,” Napolillo said. “We don’t need to have everything, we need to have access to everything.”
And Napolillo said Fayette County equipment can also be needed and utilized by the 13-county region, noting that after massive flooding struck parts of Allegheny County in 2004, many local search and rescue boat teams from Fayette County were deployed.
“It is not just about terror either,” Shipley said. “We are now better prepared for all hazards whether it be terror, or flooding or a pandemic.”
Shipley used the recent funeral ceremony for Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O’Connor, noting that his office had been in contact with Allegheny County to lend assistance for crowd control or other emergency services for the event that might be needed.
“It is all about having that network,” Shipley said.
In addition to the networking for recourses and the additional training, the county also meets with district emergency officials to discuss possible shortfalls in the system and how to over come them.
“We are always upgrading and training and working, whether it is for the upcoming golf tournament at Nemacolin or for the Flight 93 ceremony in Shanksville,” Shipley said.
And the networking has not been restricted to local emergency and government officials.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was developed in response to the attacks and is now operating 22 agencies with 180,000 employees to curtail terrorism as well as other national hazards, a shift in priority following Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005.
Additionally, the Transportation Security Administration was developed following the attacks and now includes thousands of U.S. air marshals as well as 50,000 security screeners hired to replace contracted screeners used in the past.
The FBI began to focus more on terrorism prevention and 16 separate spy agencies were assigned to one national intelligence chief.
At the Pentagon, the U.S. Northern Command was established in 2002 to oversee domestic military efforts and coordinate with local authorities in emergency situations.
The command also began conducting combat air patrols over major cities with the power to shoot down attacking aircraft.
The Department of Health and Human Services distributed more than $1 billion to local and state health departments and hospitals to prepare for a biological weapons attack.
With the increased funding and awareness of the security needs on so many levels, Napolillo and Shipley said Fayette County has benefited from the heightened preparation.
“We have a higher level of confidence in our ability and we do so much more than we did before,” Shipley said. He said the county 911 center and emergency management teams now coordinate with area hospitals and the local government nearly everyday. “We are much better prepared.”
According to Napolillo, in each event of a specific security threat, the county follows protocol laid out for nearly every possible hazard from a bomb threat to a hurricane.
Since 9-11, the county has developed ways to help secure area facilities, like water treatment plants, as well as get emergency equipment into the hands of first responders across the region in case of an attack.
In the end, Napolillo said that while he believes the nation is more secure today than it was five years ago, real security, should another 9-11-type attack occur, begins in individual households.
“I think we have done everything we can,” Napolillo said regarding securing the county. “There is always an Achilles heel but we are constantly working to make sure we are covered. We will never totally be prepared. There will always be some possible breach, but we are always working to find them. We know what our job is and we know that people are going to need help, but the most important thing people can do is take care of themselves and their family and neighbors for the first 72 hours. The more prepared, the better.”