[FedCom] Securing the Presidential Inauguration: An Inside Look

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http://www.emergencymgmt.com/safety/Securing-Presidential-Inauguration.html

Securing the Presidential Inauguration: An Inside Look

BY: Jeffrey Decker | March 14, 2013
Emergency Management Magazine

Sometimes the people at an inauguration jeer the 
president and his parade. Sometimes they’re 
happy. Unprecedented security protects the 
president and everyone who comes out to see him.

Pennsylvania Avenue was first sealed in 2001, but 
hundreds of protesters overcame short fences and 
overwhelmed understaffed barricades. Four years 
later, taller and stronger fences were specially 
ordered to stretch for miles. In 2009, those 
imposing steel rectangles helped control the 
record crowd celebrating President Barack Obama’s 
election. Both of his inaugurations saw citizens 
smiling for pictures with police instead of 
throwing food at them or burning flags.

“We had a big battle two inaugurations ago with a 
group that tried to breach the fence, but they 
never approached the parade route,” said Cathy 
Lanier, chief of the Metropolitan Police 
Department of the District of Columbia. “They never breached our fence.”

Law enforcement departments have managed violent 
protests and millions of people in the nation’s 
capital, and careful planning means they may be 
ready to handle both at the same inauguration. 
Coordination between hundreds of local and 
federal agencies is a “ballet” run “like 
clockwork,” according to the National Guard and 
the Metropolitan Police Department. About 800,000 
people attended this year’s inauguration; 1.8 
million in 2009. Riot gear and gas masks were 
standard issue when 300,000 people came to George 
W. Bush’s first inauguration and when 400,000 
people arrived for his second. Lately the heavy 
gear stays in storage as more and more police 
commute from as far away as Seattle.

“We brought in 86 different law enforcement 
agencies ­ more than 2,000 cops,” Lanier said. 
The D.C. National Guard provided all military 
ground security before inviting 120 soldiers in 
2005 to help. In 2009, more than 7,000 soldiers 
were asked to be there. Six thousand arrived in 2013.

The Secret Service is in charge of the National 
Special Security Event, partnered with the 
Metropolitan Police, U.S. Capitol Police, D.C. 
Fire and Emergency Management, D.C. Department of 
Transportation, U.S. Park Police, DHS, North 
American Aerospace Defense Command and the Joint 
Task Force National Capital Region.

Only 250,000 tickets let invited guests pass the 
tightest security and enter the Capitol’s west 
lawn. The only major glitch of 2009 led thousands 
of those ticketholders to be trapped for hours in 
the Third Street tunnel under the mall. Lanier 
said it was closed both years to everyone except emergency vehicles.

“The truck bringing the barricade to block that 
tunnel had a flat tire and he was delayed just 
long enough to let people start filling into that 
tunnel,” Lanier said. When the city’s filled to 
capacity, there’s nowhere for crowds to go, she 
added, but this year Twitter and text alerts kept 
subscribers away from congestion citywide. A new 
social media hub monitored the public’s tweets to 
head off problems before they grew. “We have 
2,400 special events here a year,” she said. Experience helps.

“The biggest problem we had was the night before 
when marchers went to Chinatown and broke 
windows,” Lanier said. The same group of anti-war 
protesters briefly disrupted traffic by lying on 
the pavement. No arrests were made. Five permits 
for demonstrations near the parade route were granted.

U.S. Capitol Police arrested three people during 
the inauguration. Spokesman Shennell Antrobus 
said one had an open intoxicant and one was a 
fugitive from justice. “There was one 
demonstrator within the crowd who was 
subsequently arrested for breaking laws that 
pertain to the Capitol grounds,” Antrobus said. 
“But there were small demonstrations around the 
Capitol grounds that our officers successfully 
managed, which resulted in no arrests.” At an 
inaugural ball that evening, a Tennessee State trooper arrested a pickpocket.

All 3,900 city police officers worked 12-hour 
shifts. Each visiting department was assigned a 
liaison officer whose radio connected him or her 
to the communications hub. “If there was any need 
for radio communications, we would use him,” said 
Capt. Mike Murphy of the Philadelphia Police 
Department. “We were not that far spread out.” 
 From his position, Murphy could see all 75 Philadelphia officers.

Delegation and coordination were key, said Secret 
Service spokesman Brian Leary. “There were 
several command posts in the area,” he said, led 
from “a Multi Agency Communications Center 
located outside Washington, D.C., where all 
agencies worked together. The MACC served as the 
central location where all participating agencies 
had a representative providing real-time updates 
for their agency’s command center.”

Designation as a National Security Special Event 
puts the Secret Service in charge. FEMA handles 
incident response and recovery operations, and 
the FBI leads incident investigations. Design and 
implementation of security and operational 
planning fall under the Secret Service.

Planning began a full year earlier. After the 
November election, Obama’s Presidential Inaugural 
Committee took charge of the day’s schedule. The 
committee held two formal balls instead of the 10 
balls held four years ago, when 10,000 charter 
buses flocked to the Capitol. Fewer than 1,000 came this year.

All buses needed a trip permit from the District 
Department of Motor Vehicles and had to reserve 
parking before arriving. National Guard soldiers 
manned vehicle restricted zones from 7 a.m. the 
day before the inauguration until early the next 
day. An outer perimeter of the vehicle restricted 
zone was open to traffic, but drivers and 
passengers were advised to prepare to show “proof 
of residence, work identification or a reasonable 
verbal justification to enter the restricted 
area.” From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the big day, the 
Federal Aviation Administration expanded the 
city’s National Defense Airspace. The usual 
military and civil VIP flights were all canceled. 
In addition, any private pilots flying over the 
city faced a license suspension, civil penalties, jail time and deadly force.

Buses stretched sideways across streets and large 
cement barriers slowed pedestrian movement across 
downtown. Restricted personal items along the 
parade and near the Capitol included any bags 
larger than 8 x 6 x 4 inches. No sticks or 
supports for signs were allowed, but the size of 
banners was barely restricted. “Signs and 
placards must be made only of cardboard, poster 
board or cloth and have dimensions no greater 
than three feet in width, 20 feet in length and 
one-quarter inch in thickness,” stated the advisory.

Dumpsters at the 11 parade entry points filled 
with water bottles and other banned items. 
Waiting for an hour or two in line ended under a 
white tent with Metropolitan Police officers 
asking for pockets to be emptied on long, slender 
tables before other officers waved metal-detecting wands over everyone.

Protesters learned in 2005 how sturdy and 
defensible the 10-foot tall steel fences are and 
none challenged the perimeter this year or in 
2009. A 20-year-old activist named Marcus joined 
a group of 70 Earth First! and anarchist 
protesters, shadowed by a dozen police at 
McPherson Square before they left for a 
permitless march. “Washington, D.C., has turned 
into a micro police state,” he said. “Of course 
it limits our ability for public access, but 
we’re a loud enough group that we’re going to be heard anyway.”

Management of potential disruptions is more 
apparent than how the president is protected 
during and before the event. How long it takes to 
sweep the apartments and businesses along the 
parade route is not released, nor are tricks like 
securing manholes. “We cannot discuss the means, 
methods, specific resources or numbers we utilize 
to carry out our protective responsibilities,” 
the Secret Service spokesperson said.

But it is clear how quickly and efficiently the 
city transforms. Traffic zones appear and 
disappear by midnight. Pennsylvania Avenue is 
stripped of mailboxes, trash bins and even the 
streetlights that are anchored in the middle of 
the street. Most of it was back in place by the 
next morning when the road reopened. Downtown had 
no private vehicles one day and was as bustling as ever the next.

National Guard support units arrived Jan. 16 and 
left on Jan. 25. Like the visiting police 
officers, the guardsmen were deputized to assist 
local law enforcement. For the military, the 57th 
inauguration highlighted civilian control over 
the nation’s fighting forces. Soldiers 
outnumbered police, but the police and Secret Service were in charge.

Of the 6,000 soldiers supporting the 
inauguration, 2,000 marched in the parade. “They 
come from about 15 states and territories ­ 
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, 
Pennsylvania, Iowa, even Puerto Rico, to name a 
few,” said Brig. Gen. Arthur W. Hinaman, 
commander of the Land Component Command for the 
District of Columbia National Guard.

It was the eighth inauguration for Maj. Gen. 
Errol Schwartz, commanding general of the Joint 
Force Headquarters for the District of Columbia 
National Guard. “Our soldiers and airmen have 
done this, on average, four times,” he said, 
adding that their regular mission of protecting 
the skies over the city remained in effect.

The “full spectrum operation” requires mechanics 
and logistical support to get other assets in 
place. “The military police or the security 
forces from the Air Force would have a good eye 
for those kinds of crowd management issues,” Schwartz said.

Every soldier is lodged within walking distance 
to his or her assignment, Schwartz said, and 
keeping track of everyone is his job. “We make 
sure that everyone who comes through the city is 
registered in our process, and a reverse process 
out of the city, so we can account for every 
individual and all equipment coming into the city,” he said.

The Joint Task Force selected the military units 
and also vetted 2,800 applications from citizen 
groups that hoped to march in the parade. They 
turned over 317 applications to the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

An enormous map of downtown D.C. spanned the 
floor of a practice arena, said Maj. Gen. Michael 
Linnington, commanding general of Joint Task 
Force National Capital Region, and it saw 20 
rehearsals before the final performance.

“The military does rehearsals better than 
anybody,” he said. “It’s a very good tool for 
synchronizing events in time and space.”

How much the whole thing cost and who’s paying 
for it won’t be known for months. “For 
operational security reasons, we do not discuss 
the cost of security,” said Gwendolyn Crump, 
director of Metropolitan Police Department communications.

“We don’t give out the breakdown of the budget,” 
said Phillip Rumsey, spokesperson for the Joint 
Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. 
The swearing-in ceremony cost $1.24 million in 
2009, while security, transportation and 
emergency services cost the federal government 
$124 million. The bills are paid by private donations.