[Infowarrior] - Upkeep Of Security Devices A Burden

[Richard Forno]

(the "long tail' problem........rf)

Upkeep Of Security Devices A Burden

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/12/AR2007081201
244_pf.html

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 13, 2007; A01

In 2003, the FBI used a $25 million grant to give bomb squads across the
nation state-of-the-art computer kits, enabling them to instantly share
information about suspected explosives, including weapons of mass
destruction.

Four years later, half of the Washington area's squads can't communicate via
the $12,000 kits, meant to be taken to the scene of potential catastrophes,
because they didn't pick up the monthly wireless bills and maintenance costs
initially paid by the FBI. Other squads across the country also have given
up using them.

"They worked, and it was a good idea -- until the subscription ran out,"
said Mike Love, who oversees the bomb squad in Montgomery County's fire
department. At the local level, he said, "there is not budget money for it."

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the area has received more than
$1 billion in federal money to strengthen first responders and secure the
region. That money has bought satellite phones, radios, protective suits,
water-security monitors and a host of other items.

But local officials are grappling with how to maintain the huge infusion of
equipment. Like a driver whose 5-year-old luxury sedan has worn-out brakes,
cracked tires and engine problems, local governments are facing hefty bills
to keep their gear working.

The region has a long list of terrorism-fighting items that need parts and
service. Officials recently set aside nearly one-fifth of the area's latest
federal homeland security grant -- about $12 million -- to cover maintenance
over the next two years.

The shopping list includes $120,000 in new batteries for emergency radios;
$400,000 to maintain chemical and radiation monitors for rivers; and
$250,000 in replacement equipment for top officials' videoconferencing
system.

Wanting to avoid a maintenance time bomb, governments are starting to plan
for the end of the decade, when state and local jurisdictions will probably
be forced to shoulder most of the costs.

"There's an agreement we're going to start weaning ourselves, such that more
and more, we'll pick up" the maintenance costs, said Fairfax County
Executive Anthony H. Griffin, who heads a committee of local government
administrators working on the grants.

In some cases, officials are slowing homeland security projects while the
question of upkeep is worked out.

This year, for example, the region asked the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security for more than $13 million to build a broadband wireless network for
emergency workers. In the end, officials decided to spend just $1 million --
on plans that will determine the maintenance costs.

Behind such caution is concern that the anti-terrorism dollars that have
rained down on the D.C. area in recent years might begin to dry up. Michael
Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, warned cities recently that the
grants were not like Social Security checks that would arrive year after
year.

"In fact, as communities begin to build their capabilities, we should see
them getting less money," Chertoff said at a news conference.

The FBI bomb-kit program shows how even the best-intentioned plans to equip
first responders can go awry over the simple question of maintenance.

The program was requested in 1999 by Congress, which had been alarmed by a
nerve-gas attack on a Tokyo subway that killed 12 people and sickened
thousands. Legislators set aside $25 million for the FBI to prepare state
and local bomb squads to deal with weapons of mass destruction.

The FBI developed a special suitcase of tools that bomb squads could take to
scenes. The core of the kit was a rugged wireless laptop loaded with files
describing explosives and chemical and biological agents.

The kit also included a digital camera so technicians could snap a picture
of any strange device and e-mail it to FBI bomb experts for quick advice.

"It was a unique communication tool," said FBI Special Agent Barbara
Martinez, a top official in the agency's Critical Incident Response Group.

The "Cobra kits" were handed out to nearly 400 state and local bomb squads
across the country in 2003. Each came with a prepaid three-year service
agreement and a one-year wireless card.

But apparently, no one realized that the squads might not have the cash to
maintain the wireless subscription.

Local officials said it could run $60 a month per kit, totaling a few
hundred dollars for a squad with several kits. Also, the kits needed
periodic updates, which could run into the hundreds or thousands of dollars,
they said.

"It was quite expensive for the local jurisdictions to absorb the cost,"
said Jerry Swain, bomb-squad commander for Loudoun County.

Montgomery's Love said his department had to stop paying for the system in
2005, just two years after getting it.

"Basically, we're still dealing with the same budget we had 10 years ago,
except for personnel costs," he said.

The D.C. and Arlington County police bomb squads also dropped the wireless
subscription. The Prince George's County bomb squad chose to replace that
system with other technology purchased through federal grants, a spokesman
said.

Some local squads said they had more pressing needs than maintaining the
system, which they described as occasionally helpful but not essential.

"To say it's something that's going to make or break us on the scene, I
would say not," Swain said.

Others said they found the kit valuable because of its wireless connection
to other bomb experts and its copious reference material.

"We could carry around 10 textbooks, but it's all there" in the computer,
said Sgt. Thomas Sharkey, Metro's bomb-squad commander. Metro has continued
to maintain its kits, as have bomb squads run by the Fairfax County police
and Virginia State Police.

Jeff Fuller, a spokesman for the National Bomb Squad Commanders Advisory
Board, said that many squads had found the kits too expensive to maintain
but that he didn't know how many stopped using it. Martinez, the FBI
official, also said she did not know.

Martinez said the kits were initially successful in teaching bomb
technicians about weapons of mass destruction. Now, though, some of the kits
are sitting unused, she acknowledged.

"It is sad -- now you've got that paperweight doorstop out there," she said.

But the FBI made it clear from the start that local and state squads would
eventually have to pick up the maintenance costs, she said. "Maybe people
didn't read the fine print," she added.

FBI bomb technicians across the country have continued to maintain their
kits and can take them to scenes to assist, she said.

Was the project a bad use of $25 million? No, Martinez said, but she added,
"I wish it came with the maintenance thing."

Because of advances in technology, the 2003 kits would need significant
upgrades to be effective now, she said.

In this year's application for its homeland security grant, the region's
bomb squads included a request to upgrade their Cobra kits and pay for
wireless cards. But local officials say it is not clear whether they would
use their funding award on the project because they have higher priorities
for their squads, including protective suits and robots.

"The last thing we want to do is put money into something the grant is not
going to keep up over time," said Loudoun County Fire Marshal Keith Brower,
who heads a regional committee overseeing bomb squads. "We're flagging those
issues right now."