Washington state ready if terrorists strike

More than $400 million of federal money has poured into Washington state to equip and train first responders since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

While no terrorists have hit the South Sound region, local officials say the money has helped them prepare for a worst-case scenario and also to handle more common emergencies.

The state Emergency Management Division funneled more than $28 million in federal Homeland Security grant money to Pierce County’s Department of Emergency Management over the past nine years. The money bought better equipment for dive and bomb teams, upgraded the aircraft used by law enforcement agencies in the region, and funded a regional intelligence unit. It paid emergency management staff to develop shelter plans, train 21,859 people and host drills that simulate a large-scale terrorism attack.

Federal grant money has bolstered the Washington State Patrol’s bomb squad and ferry security program and purchased some of its explosive-sniffing canines. And it allowed the Tacoma Fire Department to upgrade its equipment.

The Tacoma/Pierce County Health Department has received nearly $14 million since 2003 to address problems raised not only by the Sept. 11 attacks but also by hurricanes and pandemic illnesses over the past decade.

Law enforcement and emergency management officials say they have taken an “all hazards approach” to using the federal grant money. The plans, equipment and training leave them better prepared for a terrorism attack but also to evacuate and shelter victims of an earthquake, flood or windstorm; to combat gangs or drug trafficking organizations; to rescue someone from the water; or to disable an explosive device.

“Terrorism is just a small sliver of what goes on in the criminal world,” said State Patrol Sgt. Lance Ladines, who is assigned to the Washington State Fusion Center, an intelligence-gathering operation based in Seattle. “You have to look at everything that comes in.”

The Pierce County Metro Dive Team, for example, bought a new 29-foot boat, remote-operated underwater vehicle and sonar equipment with Homeland Security money. The team has used the equipment to inspect the hulls of ships and ferries, survey suspicious objects, locate wreckage from downed aircraft and recover drowning victims.

“We are safer as it relates to equipment and training because of the grant money,” said Pierce County sheriff’s Lt. Scott Mielcarek, supervisor of the team, which is comprised of Tacoma police officers and Pierce County sheriff’s deputies. “We have gotten quite a bit of use out of this equipment for operational needs that have helped everyone out.”

Officials say the terrorist attacks 10 years ago also helped focus the region on working together and sharing resources. Before, agencies guarded their equipment and resources. One of the requirements for federal grants, however, is for jurisdictions to think regionally.

“You can talk about the money, all the plans, all the equipment, but the big thing it did was bring us closer together as a public safety community,” said Steve Bailey, Pierce County’s director of emergency management. “The funding has really forced us to break those silos and become more of a team.”

PREPARING AT HOME WITH FEDERAL FUNDS

In the first weeks and months after the Sept. 11 attacks, local law enforcement and fire departments focused on preparing for a large-scale terrorist attack in their region. They studied their operations, training, intelligence gathering and targets within their cities.

Agencies used federal grant money to stockpile hazardous-materials kits, gas masks and protective suits for first responders. Health departments scrambled to get vaccines to combat anthrax.

In the years since, federal Homeland Security money has continued to flow into the region.

Pierce County is one of nine homeland security regions in the state receiving money under the State Homeland Security Grant Program. It also shares money with King and Snohomish counties received through the Urban Area Security Initiative. Money from the initiative has been used to “build a regional capability that we have been lacking in this area,” Bailey said. For example, the money boosted the region’s aviation capabilities by providing the King County Sheriff’s Office with a new helicopter and refurbishing the aircraft used by Snohomish County and Pierce County deputies.

Officials say the requirements for receiving the federal grants have become more stringent over the years. Applicants must show how they will use the money to improve risk management, community preparedness and participation, critical infrastructure protection, and responder health and safety.

Once the money is awarded, local committees decide which projects to fund. The agencies must file quarterly reports on how they spent the money.

The federal government audited the state in 2008 to see how it spent $121.6 million in Homeland Security grant money awarded from 2004-2006. The audit found that the state doled out the money appropriately.

The audit dinged the state for not having adequate controls and ways of tracking personal property bought with the grant money. The audit team visited four regions, including Pierce County, and found they didn’t have complete documentation for the property and where it was located. The state corrected the problem before the audit was published, said Rob Harper, spokesman for Washington Emergency Management Department.

THE SPENDING BREAKDOWN

Pierce County’s Department of Emergency Management has received more than $16 million for equipment since 2003. Among the purchases for local law enforcement and emergency management staff:

 • A mobile operations command center.

 • Equipment for the county’s Emergency Operations Center.

 • Bomb vehicles and suits.

 • Sonar equipment and an underwater remote-operated vehicle for the Metro Dive Team.

 • Robots for the bomb and SWAT teams.

 • An improvised explosive detection dog.

The county spent more than $5.5 million for planning, more than $4 million for training and slightly less than $1 million to conduct training exercises. The money paid for emergency management and training staff as well as development of a comprehensive emergency management plan, risk analysis and school threat assessments. The county has trained citizens on emergency neighborhood preparedness and conducted mass casualty training exercises with police, firefighters, hospitals, health officials and others.

A portion of the federal grant money helped create a joint intelligence-gathering unit for the Tacoma Police and Pierce County Sheriff’s departments. The unit is staffed with two analysts and two detectives who sift through daily police reports. They look for international terrorist activity but also domestic terrorism, gang and drug activity, said Gary Smith, one of the analysts.

The analysts share information with other intelligence groups in the region and across the country and try to predict problems at upcoming events. They have monthly intelligence meetings with representatives from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, the FBI and others.

The group assisted in the manhunt for Maurice Clemmons after he shot and killed four Lakewood police officers Nov. 29, 2009, in a Parkland coffee shop.

“We rely on them to provide us information to use to deploy resources,” Tacoma police Lt. Mark Feddersen said.

EQUIPPING FIRE DEPARTMENTS

Homeland Security has awarded the Tacoma Fire Department about $3.9 million in grants since 2002. The biggest chunk of federal money came from the Health and Human Services Department.

Grants of more than $1.5 million significantly improved the department’s Metropolitan Medical Response System, which trains emergency responders how to respond to a hazard with mass casualties.

An integral part of the program is ensuring that firefighters partner with local hospitals and health departments before an incident occurs.

“The things we’ve gotten have strengthened our department and made us more effective in our response,” department spokesman Joe Meinecke said.

Some of the money paid for updates to the department’s Computer Aided Dispatch System and radio equipment, technical rescue equipment and training, and emergency management planning.

Meinecke pointed out that Tacoma firefighters have a unique job because they cover the port as well as the city.

That’s why some of the grant money paid to fix up the Commencement, one of the department’s two fireboats, and added improved moorage.

The fireboat was refurbished in 2006 with the help of a $750,000 grant from FEMA. The department has not yet spent a $1.2 million port security grant to upgrade moorage and fireboat equipment.

HEALTH DEPARTMENT GETS A CUT

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department has received nearly $14 million through several federal Homeland Security grant programs since Sept. 11 for local initiatives.

The 2001 attacks turned on the federal spigot by drawing attention to emergency preparedness – specifically the threat of bioterrorism – but the entire flow of money can’t be traced back to that single event.

The Health Department’s funding to improve emergency responsiveness also was boosted by other national calamities during the decade, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the swine flu pandemic in 2009.

Funding has come from the federal Department of Health and Human Services in addition to the Department of Homeland Security.

The funds have been used to increase staffing and training and to increase coordination with other agencies and civilian volunteers.

The money also has gone for stockpiling emergency medical supplies and equipment, including pharmaceutical caches, emergency beds and special phones for emergency coordination.

STATE PATROL, FERRIES

The State Patrol has used federal Homeland Security grant money to bolster ferry security and its bomb squad, which responds statewide.

The agency created a Homeland Security Division in the wake of Sept. 11 to provide security for the state’s 22 ferries. With 22 million people and 10 million vehicles riding the ferries each year, Washington’s is the largest ferry system in the country.

Before the terrorist attacks, troopers assigned to individual patrol districts provided security for the ferries and terminals. After the attacks, the Homeland Security Division was formed and staffed with 77 law enforcement personnel, State Patrol Lt. Mark Brogan said. The agency pulled current troopers into the division, then added 18 troopers in the 2005-07 budget.

The division has upward of 50 explosive-sniffing dogs that screen vehicles waiting to get on the ferries. The division also oversees a multi-agency bomb squad that responds to calls primarily outside the Puget Sound region.

“Our security, the way we provide it, has become more holistic,” Brogan said. “We are much more effective and not as intrusive.”

The State Patrol also helped develop the Washington State Fusion Center, based in downtown Seattle. The center has a staff of 22, including detectives and analysts who sort through tips of suspicious activity and determine which agency they go to.

The tip that thwarted a planned terrorist attack this year at a Seattle military recruiting station filtered through the Fusion Center. An FBI sting in June landed two men in federal custody, facing up to life in prison on charges of conspiracy to murder officers and employees of the United States, conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, and possession of firearms in furtherance of crimes of violence.

“That’s the beauty of this,” said Sgt. Ladines of the Fusion Center. “That was a good, solid outcome.”

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268
stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/crime

Staff writers Stacia Glenn and Rob Carson contributed to this report.