Indiana has an extensive history of hosting high profile events, from the Indianapolis 500 to the Indiana Black Expo, which attributes to today’s local law enforcement tactics to prevent terrorism.
In the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Orlando, Florida, and not too long ago, San Bernadino, California, officials were able to prevent a Brownsburg, Indiana man from successfully enacting an attack. This poses the question: Why has Indiana found success in preventing terrorism attacks?
Jim White, public safety lecturer at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) School of Public and Environmental Affairs(SPEA), has 40 years of public safety experience including military service in Iraq.
He says that Indiana’s rich history of law enforcement working closely together attributes to its success in prevention tactics.
“It’s the 100 year anniversary of the Indianapolis 500, and that’s the catalyst.
Indianapolis has a long history of State Police, the Indianapolis Police Department, the Speedway Police Department, the Cumberland Police Department, all the police departments in Central Indiana, have a long history of working together.”
SPEA Professor Abdul Sadiq at IUPUI also says the amount of collaboration among our local and state law enforcement agencies and the federal law enforcement agencies contributes to terrorism prevention.
Likewise, Indianapolis has established a better emergency management system due to previous local emergencies.
William Foley Jr., SPEA professor at IUPUI, has also worked in the homeland security field for decades including the Indiana Department of Homeland Security. Foley notes previous emergencies that have attributed to Indiana’s terrorism tactics: the Indiana State Fair Coliseum in 1963; the series of great tornadoes in Spring 1965; the town square explosion in Richmond, Indiana in 1968; the jet collision with Ramada Inn at the airport in 1987; ice storms in Winter 2004; straight line winds in 2008; and a New Madrid seismic zone earthquake in 2008.
“With 9/11, Indiana was one of the first states to create a state Department of Homeland Security (IDHS), an Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center (IIFC). Indiana also was one of the first states to draw up a full set of state operations plans for major possible disasters by type, from 2006 through 2008.”
In addition, Foley says IDHS has received adequate funding for counter-terrorism from the Bush and Obama administrations due to its innovative practices.
Along the lines of funding, SPEA Professor Jeremy Carter at IUPUI adds that the level of resource support provided by the state or municipality can affect counterterrorism efforts.
According to White, the most important factor is understanding that all events are local and that counter-terrorism is a collective effort by the state, local and federal entities.
“9/11 was a New York City and Washington, DC event. There were national implications, but those were local events. You have to understand that, and you have to get the locals involved. Indianapolis probably has one of the best partnerships locally and that means with the feds, state police, the local police, of any community in the country, and I’ve done security events all over the nation,” said White.
White, along with others, stresses the importance of law enforcement working efficiently and working together to prevent terrorist attacks. “Law enforcement has to be right 100 percent of the time. The bad guys only have to be right once.”
