If you are like most people in any type of emergency services profession you have no doubt been seated in a classroom someplace in the past several years and were saturated with information, training, and new policies related to terrorism.
I spend plenty of time in training sessions tapping my fingers, drinking coffee, trying to figure out, “How does this pertain to me?” I’ll even admit to thinking every so often, “Is this over yet?”
Let me back up a bit. I am not a suit-and-tie expert in the field of terrorism. I am simply another law enforcement officer that enjoys catching bad guys, and I am not fussy about who gets to go to jail. However, when you do a little research on terrorism — both historically and what the future may bring — you realize this is a topic that pertains to all of us. If you study terrorism in detail you find that it really makes sense that rural officers will be seeing the effects of this type of activity. You see, anything that might be considered a “major terrorist target” is probably now being protected to some extent, and in some cases to the highest possible degree.
What does that leave? It leaves soft targets in rural America — places that have little protection or surveillance equipment — like: hydroelectric dams, large bridges, drinking/irrigation water supplies, farm crops, strategically or historically important forests, cattle farms, ski resorts, casinos, ferries, national parks, sporting events, private schools, high-dollar summer camps, college campuses, and even some smaller military bases.
One of the fundamental concepts behind terrorism is to grab headlines. With that in mind, think about having a bunch of terrorists conduct a commando style raid at your local school. Could it happen? It already has. Remember the 2004 attack in Beslan, Russia in which 338 people were killed.
Are you prepared or have you thought about your response to something like this? No doubt would be quite different from the lone gunman scenario for which we train and about which we do our “when-then” thinking as we patrol our streets.
What about the use of school buses to launch some type of attack? There have been reports in the US of people being turned away from getting a bus driver’s license for using false social security numbers and ID. What’s happening there? What about blueprints from small town U.S. schools being found in caves in Afghanistan?
In the case of the rural officer, in many of our areas it’s possible that a lone officer might be dealing with this type of scenario for a long time before help arrives. You need to think now — before anything happens — about some serious questions: Will you approach? If so, how? Have we planned on the bad guys having lookouts and where they might be located?
Rural cops are pretty good at developing informal informants and contacts — is it time to develop a contact with a local bus driver who has worked there forever? What about that retired couple that sits on the porch every morning and evening across from the school? Would they let us know if something suspicious was going on? Could we let them know that dispatch might call them if there was some sort of active threat so they could give responding officers a “bird’s eye view” of what they see from their house prior to arrival?
If we are not thinking about these things maybe it is time to think outside the box to protect our schools and children. Not a new idea — it’s just another form of neighborhood watch.
What about an attack at private schools and youth camps? I’m not talking about the kind of camp a typical cop’s kids can attend, but high-dollar places that cost several thousand bucks. Whose children attend these? Probably politician’s kids, to name but one example that gives you an idea of the type of high-profile targets these places might become. If we can agree that one of the objectives of terrorism is to grab headlines, it doesn’t take much imagination to understand that a summer camp full of kids from the nicer sides of town across your state has lots and lots of media potential.
Have we made a contact at the youth camp and handed them a card in case they notice any suspicious activity or employee? Should we instruct them what to do if they have problems or some type of threat? Is it worth adding that camp area to our beat and stop and chat with the staff on occasion? If there is some sort of trespassing issue do we write it off as frisky teens, or think about it a little more tactically? Might be time to get our gears turning.
Most of us rural officers work in areas where there is at least one sort of ecological target; hydro-dams, recreation areas, cattle and crop farms, drinking water supplies. It stands to reason that an attack on these types of targets would be practically effortless.
How could terrorists hang around a bridge rigging explosives and look like they belonged there? I would say a good cover might be to have a couple of fishing poles and a tackle box full of cell phones and explosives. Did you know that in Michigan in 2006 a potential plot to attack the bridge that connects the upper peninsula of Michigan to Lower Michigan was uncovered when three subjects were stopped with more than 1000 cell phones? .
Do you know your state’s fishing laws and seasons? That could be good info to know if you see a boat or person is spending lots of time hanging around one of those “soft target” bridges or dams fishing during a time there is no open fishing season.
In rural America it is not uncommon to encounter a person simply carrying a firearm. What about someone walking in a recreation area, forest, farm, or other remote area with a firearm? If the suspect says he’s hunting deer, rabbits, or whatever, do you know if the season is actually open? Does he have the right type of firearm for the game he claims to be after? Do you have a working relationship with your local fish and game officers? When it comes to terrorism on these ecological targets there is probably no better contact to assist with investigating suspicious activity, however knowing the laws and basic knowledge of hunting and fishing can give you a start by being able to ask the right questions of your suspects. At the very least, pick up the hunting/fishing regulations books and put them in your squad.
Pyroterrorism — simply starting forest fires — is a threat as well. This can be used to tie up emergency equipment as well as destroy natural resources and parks. Are you familiar with the agencies that will be responding to these fires and the officers or rangers that investigate the cause of these wildfires? If you respond to one of these fires would it hurt to write down license plate numbers of any vehicles you would meet that are leaving the area? If you are fortunate enough to be in an area where they use airplanes or helicopters to fight these fires, can you communicate with them to have them look for vehicles, people, or other items of interest in the area of the fire? Most of the time in these situations our response is limited to traffic direction, so why not pay a little extra attention and leave your dashcam on, or find some other way to record plate numbers of the vehicles driving through the area. In the event of an arson situation, you may see the same vehicle showing up at several different fires — could be a real good starting point for an officer investigating a series of arson fires.
There are also the tourist targets like national parks, large tracts of government-owned land, ski resorts, casinos, etc. Many of these targets we tend to tell ourselves that they have their own security, or the park rangers will take care of that area. Bottom line is nowadays we are all in this together. If you don’t know the security personnel at the ski resort, it might be time to buy them a cup of coffee and talk about the “what if’s?” and other stuff, like what areas have camera surveillance at their resort. Same is true for the government park lands: do you know the rangers who patrol those areas? Have you talked about any potential terrorist targets in those areas and if there is any plan in place should there be some sort of attack? It is too easy to say that these things will happen someplace else, take the proactive approach to protect these areas.
What does this mean for the average rural officer? Well, it means that there is a pretty good chance that whether you are a police officer, deputy sheriff, fish and game officer, park ranger, or security officer, you could — with some good old fashioned police work — initiate contact with the one individual that unfolds some sort of terrorist plot that nobody knew about. As we all know, if you’re not looking for it, you won’t find it.
I’m not really saying anything new here. We all know about terrorism. We’ve all been through community policing training, learned about neighborhood watch, and we all like to catch bad guys. This is really just a reminder that it only makes sense to be proactive and take all of these tools and adapt them to modern day issues to protect our communities and the people within them.
There is a group of officers and administrators out there that will always plan on these events happening “someplace else” and those people will be in our ranks until the end of time. But my guess is that if you’re taking the time read this Web site — or more specifically, read this article — then you’re not that type of cop. You are likely an officer that earns their money always striving to learn more, preparing for any and every possibility.
So for you, this is just another article meant to help you think “outside the box” and to encourage you to research the different forms of terrorism, find out how attacks have been carried out in the past, and what is going on out there in the world. Identify these types of targets in your jurisdiction; formulate a plan on what you are going to do to protect them, how you will respond and who you might be responding with.
You never know, that “someplace else” might end up being your own backyard!
