Since 9/11: Is Utah safer?
State has taken steps to protect
Little did he know that since 9/11, that plant has extra security cameras and officers constantly watching for terrorists who might be poking around for places to plant bombs. A security guard spotted him driving away and called in reinforcements.
"There were a lot of cops," says John Adams, director of the sewage plant. "The bomb squad was even called in" to examine carefully the ammo box the man left. All they found eventually were some photos inside.
Today, even walking too near a sewage plant is seen as a potential act of terrorism. LeRoy W. Hooton Jr., director of Salt Lake City Public Utilities, notes that officials must consider even sewage plants as terrorist targets because destroying them could devastate daily life and business.
Five years after 9/11 and the new age of threats that it created, officials say Utahns are probably more protected than ever against such attacks because of extensive planning and often-hidden security (even at sewage plants). They also add quickly that nothing is foolproof, and risk of terrorism always remains.
Officials also say Utah may be further along in plans and action to protect against terrorism than most states because hosting the 2002 Winter Games — the first big "national security event" after 9/11 — forced it to focus on terrorist threats quickly, and the state has built upon that.
"I think we are definitely safer today. Prior to the Olympics, what did we have in place? I don't know that there was much checking going on as far as our vulnerabilities," says Mike Kuehn, the state's director of homeland security.
Of course, that changed during the Olympics when Utah had more U.S. military stationed here than in Afghanistan (and it was before the war in Iraq). The Air Force patrolled the skies over venues. Terrorism became, and has remained, a top concern for all local law enforcement and many other public and private groups.
State homeland security officials still have monthly meetings with government agencies and private businesses about threats and protection for 13 separate sectors: agriculture, banking/ finance, the chemical industry, defense industry, energy, emergency services, computer services, telecommunications, postal/shipping, public health, transportation and national monuments/icons.
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