[Infowarrior] - From Monitoring Teens to Minding Terrorists

[Richard Forno]

>From Monitoring Teens to Minding Terrorists
Mall Security Guards to Receive New Training, but Feasibility Is Questioned
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/02/AR2007010201
094_pf.html
By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 3, 2007; D01

The job of a shopping mall security guard normally involves controlling
rowdy teenagers, finding lost children and patrolling parking lots. But
starting this month, malls across the country will begin training guards for
another task: fighting terrorism.

The 14-hour program is being developed by the International Council of
Shopping Centers, a trade group, and the Homeland Security Policy Institute
at George Washington University at a cost of $2 million. It is the first
standardized anti-terrorism curriculum written for the nation's estimated
20,000 mall security guards.

Developers of the program say it is crucial to safeguarding shopping
centers, which have significant economic import -- as evidenced by the
billions of dollars spent at malls during the holiday season -- and have
emerged as modern-day town centers, with movie theaters, restaurants, and
now grocery stores and gyms.

"Many different facets of our society since September 11 have had to take
the stark realization that bad people might try to do bad things," said Paul
M. Maniscalco, a senior research scientist at GW who helped create the
program. "Security is really paramount in large enclosed malls. . . . .
These events, when you respond to them, you make or break it in the first 20
minutes."

Not everyone agrees, however, that America's malls face a serious threat of
terrorism. And some critics question the effectiveness of the training when
the private security industry suffers from high turnover -- most guards
leave the job within a year and some in as little as four months, according
to estimates from the Service Employees International Union.

"There is no justification for this," said Ian S. Lustick, a professor at
the University of Pennsylvania and author of "Trapped in the War on Terror."
"It's too diffuse a problem. There's a security problem in any public place.
. . . The retail industry and shopping malls is just one little part of
that."

The training focuses on making guards more aware of the effects of terrorist
attacks and helping them recognize potential attackers. It ranges from the
understanding the characteristics of the nerve agent sarin (especially
dangerous in enclosed spaces because it vaporizes quickly) to spotting
suicide bombers (look for unusual dress, like a heavy coat in the middle of
summer). The program is being tested at a handful of shopping centers,
including the Mall in Columbia, and is planned to be rolled out over the
next six months.

The Department of Homeland Security categorizes shopping centers, along with
other easily accessible public places, as "soft targets." Since the 2001
attacks, the Smithsonian museums and national monuments have been among
those increasing security, and the Washington Convention Center recently
said it was beefing up emergency preparedness training for some workers.

Yet the retail industry has treaded warily. Customers expect shopping
centers to be free and open, and malls are loath to introduce stringent
security measures, as airports have done, that might limit shoppers' access
-- or scare them off altogether. Though security officers are usually
uniformed, they are not intended to appear threatening.

"Their job is to be welcoming," said Robert Rowe, director of development
for the American Society for Industrial Security, an advocacy group for
private security officers. "The shopping mall doesn't survive unless people
come."

General Growth Properties Inc., which owns Tysons Galleria and the Mall in
Columbia, has already restricted access to the roofs of its buildings, said
David Levenberg, vice president of security and risk management. The
Columbia shopping center recently installed a video surveillance system, a
wall of 16 monitors and eight video recorders filling a tiny security
office.

"You want to see the sales slip?" said Bill Burley IV, director of public
safety and security at the mall, as he directed one of the more than 100
cameras to zoom in on a shopper looking at jewelry.

But a report released early in 2006 under leadership of the Police
Foundation, a District think tank, found that although some malls have made
changes, they have not been enough. The study, funded by the Justice
Department, cited lack of coordination with local law and emergency forces
and financing for new technology. It highlighted poor training of mall
officers in terrorism awareness and response as one of the industry's main
challenges.

That thinking broadens the responsibility of security guards: Mall security
directors surveyed in the report put loitering kids as their top concern,
with terrorism second. Only 2.5 percent required guards to have some college
education. Less than 1 percent mandated a degree in criminal justice.

Robert C. Davis, lead author of the study who now is senior research analyst
at Rand Corp., said it is not feasible to teach mall guards the complex
skills needed to identify potential terrorists, who are tracked through
highly developed intelligence networks. He contends there is little malls
can do to prevent an attack -- they can only react to one.

"The biggest things malls can do is have really well-developed, detailed
emergency response plans and rehearse them," Davis said. "The best thing
they can do is respond effectively."

Maniscalco said the curriculum focuses on awareness and response and was
developed with the same materials used in training courses for emergency
responders and law enforcement, tailored for mall security officers.

The instructional DVD was shot at the Boulevard Mall in Las Vegas. One
lesson shows a man dressed as a janitor with a hose who seems to be watering
plants in the food court. But there is no badge on his uniform and his eyes
are scanning the crowd rather than looking at the plants.

Actually, he is spraying dangerous chemicals into the air, Maniscalco said.
And instead of following an instinct to rush to the scene -- and possibly
exposing themselves to the chemical -- guards should block off the area and
call police, he said. The DVD also has live footage of terrorist attacks
from New York to Russia, including the carnage following a suicide bombing
in Israel.

"This is all real-world, everyday stuff that the security officer will
encounter," Maniscalco said.

In fact, a man was arrested in December for plotting to use hand grenades
and a pistol to disrupt Christmas shopping at a Rockford, Ill., mall. Two
years ago in Columbus, Ohio, a man with alleged ties to al-Qaeda was
indicted for wanting to shoot up a local mall. He is awaiting trial.

Still, there has been never been a terrorist attack against a U.S. shopping
center. William Flynn, director of risk management for Homeland Security,
said there was no intelligence to suggest shopping centers were in danger.
The handful of reported threats seem to have come from lone wolves rather
than organized cells, skeptics say.

"I wouldn't say let's classify every shopping mall in the country as
critical infrastructure and start handing out federal grants" said James
Carafano, a homeland security expert with the Heritage Foundation. "Putting
a lot of money in this doesn't make much sense."

The initial rollout of the curriculum is being funded by the International
Council of Shopping Centers, and companies that provide the private security
for the country's shopping centers have agreed to participate, council
spokesman Malachy Kavanagh said. Financing for the future has yet to be
determined, but Kavanagh said the group plans to apply for federal grants.
Flynn said he supports the program and that Homeland Security has conducted
risk assessments at several shopping centers across the country.

One of the first guards to go through the new training program was Lt. Al
Pineiro, who has worked at the Mall in Columbia for the past 10 years,
starting part-time and recently going full-time. A former Army recruiter, he
was at the National Guard facility in Silver Spring on Sept. 11, 2001. He
recalled watching one of the World Trade Center towers crumble on a
big-screen television with his fellow soldiers.

"I was shocked that it happened so close to home," he said.

Pineiro said the anti-terrorism training recalled the lessons he learned in
the months following the attacks. It took him several days to complete the
course, and he aced the final exam.

"It just reminds us that we have to stay alert," he said. "We can't afford
to get complacent."