introduction

terrorism is defined as "strategy employing the use or threat of force to achieve

political or social objectives" (hertig, 2002, p.142). liaison refers to when two
or more groups can work together to achieve a common goal. since the events of
september 11th there has been a growing need for liaisons between security,
government, and private industries in order to prevent horrific terrorist attacks
in the future. there have been some new programs implemented to help with this
current liaison issue, but not even the new homeland security department has been
able to bring the f.b.i. and c.i.a. together; the two main components needed in
unifying efforts against terrorism.

post september 11th

since september 11th, the management personnel of security departments have
focused more on the need for efficient security measures to be taken (harowitz,
2001). these new security measures would enable better visitor access controls,
better elevator controls, and more surveillance. the new surveillance, such as
sensors, is intended to be automated software (harowitz, 2001). there is much need
for this new equipment and liaisons between agencies that will use this type of
surveillance, so they can work together and solve problems more quickly.

a team known as the building performance assessment team (bpat) which includes
experts such as structural and fire engineers, blast-effects specialists, building
designers, and investigators, performed an extensive study on the world trade
center (gips, 2002). the specialist's main focus was to see what caused the
collapse and what lessons could be learned from all of this (gips, 2002). this
group was sponsored and supported by the federal emergency management agency
(fema) and put together by the structural engineering institute of the american
society of civil engineers, known as sei/asce (gips, 2002). these organizations
are working together to try to prevent this from re-occurring and to implement new
building designs. in their report it had been noted that the two towers were built
to withstand an impact of a jet on a smaller scale then the actual 707 aircraft
used in the attacks (gips, 2002). building engineers also discovered that specific
design features were employed in the twin towers that helped keep the buildings
from collapsing for as long as possible (gips, 2002). the planes destroyed between
27 and 32 columns, which gave the trade centers the support needed to keep
standing. many experts say that the buildings remained standing after this
happened because of their size and the exterior columns having been placed so
close together.

cause of towers collapsing

the fema/asce study confirmed that what caused the buildings to ultimately
collapse was the fire started by the jet fuel, which melted away the interior
structure and spread throughout the buildings (gips, 2002). the sprinkler system
was unable to function properly because the impact by both jets destroyed the
active water supply. the researchers went on to explain that the system probably
would not have functioned properly because the flames would have taken over making
it impossible to extinguish the fire (gips, 2002). another problem was the
stairwells, which were too close together and after the jet impact many exit
routes were blocked off. chicago engineer, w. gene corley, commented in regards to
the stairwells, that engineers feel it is more appealing to spread stairwells out.
therefore, if there is an impact there would be a better chance that the impact
won't take out all the stairwells, as it did in building one (gips, 2002). the
main areas of the building structures that needed improvement which were revealed
in this study and others, were the following:

support structures or columns

stairwells
fireproofing techniques
building codes and new construction ideas
jonathon barnett, a member of sei/asce, suggests that new building codes may not
need to be changed. the trade centers were built in the sixties and seventies, and
building codes have changed since then. based on the limited data he possesses,
barnett feels that there is no need for change in building codes because they were
sufficient codes. robert c. wilbe, executive director of the national conference
of states on building codes and standards, agrees with barnett: "there are just
some things that a building will not stand up to" (gips, 2002, p.58).

the president of hinman consulting engineers in san francisco, ca, eve e. hinman,
gives several new ideas on how the construction of the world trade center may have
led to the high death toll. hinman believes that there are new structural measures
for building designs that can be implemented with minimal cost; an example would
be some of the measures utilized to strengthen buildings in seismic zones
(harowitz, 2001). these may not have necessarily prevented the towers from
collapsing; however, she insists that "they could help increase the number of
survivors from a less devastating attack" (harowitz, 2001 p. 42). the importance
of construction is prominent, as eve hinman described; but rescuers, builders, and
law enforcement officials all need to work together in creating a safe and secure
environment for future employees.

what have we learned?

a most important lesson learned from september 11th is the need for stronger
liaisons between government agencies, police departments, security officials,
builders, and rescue agencies. however, many are unsure of how many reforms are
needed for new building measures.

the growing terrorism problems and the attacks on september 11th should have had
an impact on liaisons between government agencies, police, and security personnel.
they should be able to work together to stop the threats that terrorists pose on
our country, but this is not the case. more and more we are seeing a gap between
these agencies, which needs to be resolved.

problems with liaisons

according to a study done in the 1970's, by the private security advisory council,
"the major barrier identified by the committee is a role conflict, which manifests
itself in the lack of clear role identifications, perceptual distortions, and
mutual negative stereotyping between private security and law enforcement" ("law
enforcement," 1976). law enforcement agencies and private security organizations
were both invented to perform protective functions in society. however there are
clear differences in their organizational structures, their protective roles, and
the primary beneficiaries of their services. major differences between these two
groups stem from whether they are government agencies or private corporations.
these discrepancies are the underlying reasons for conflict between private
security and law enforcement ("law enforcement," 1976).

public and private groups do not always work well together. public interest and
concerns are the main focus of law enforcement, while private security is
concerned with private matters. the main areas of conflict between them are lack
of mutual respect, communications, cooperation, standards, perceived corruption,
and the lack of law enforcement knowledge of private security ("law enforcement,"
1976).

according to hertig (personal communication, april 8, 2003), in order to solve the

current liaison problem, "the first step is that there needs to be an
understanding of the role and purpose of each organization, examine the
capabilities of each organization, meet with and get to know the key persons in
the other organizations, and consider meetings or joint training exercises or
hosting seminars that various organizations can attend." once these liaisons are
developed they must be maintained through "respect," acquiring relations with work
peers, "know the law, know the policy." it is also crucial to keep incident scenes
protected, be thorough at initial investigations, and be proficient at court cases
and presentation of material in court. one must have good communications with
other agencies, "joint training," and maintain a membership with either law
enforcement or investigative organizations.

although good liaisons are scarce certain organizations have been making attempts
in creating new and strong relations. the asis international website helps in
forming liaisons by providing many links to other organizations. one such
organization is the awareness of national security issues and response, ansir,
created by the fbi. the fbi has been providing awareness information to the ansir
organization as a part of its national security mission. the information given
helps in informing united states persons, corporations, and institutions to
intelligence and terrorist activities (asis international, 2003).

these large organizations are setting examples and creating new opportunities for
smaller entities such as individual security professionals to strengthen their
liaisons. randy rice (personal communication, april 25, 2003), regional security
director of 14 shopping centers, gave the suggestion of allowing private security
to have direct radios with police, fire departments, and ems. this will in turn
allow security forces to act more quickly when disaster strikes. "it's our
property, who knows it better than us?" rice stated. allowing these groups to work
in their familiar areas cuts down on the amount of time it takes for others to
respond. the more functions that the private industries are involved in, which do
not have to be performed by the police, the better.

there are ways in which liaisons can be formed between different law enforcement
and security agencies, but there seems to be that void somewhere that is not being
filled. the gap lies somewhere within our government, as soon as we can get our
government working properly, security and law enforcement agencies will most
likely follow, forming stronger liaisons.

assessments government made after september 11th

one of the first assessments our government made was to try and improve the
airport security as well as any other means of transportation. this was done
through the "aviation and transportation security act." this act formed the
transportation security administration, and added more security measures to most
transportation facilities, including airports.

many believe that what went wrong on september 11th is that the fbi and cia did
not communicate well enough. due to this belief, president bush saw the need for a
separate agency to focus strictly on terrorism. bush stated that the new
department "would be devoted to overseeing functions now dispersed among a
confusing patchwork of dozens of agencies" ("a huge government reorganization,"
2003). the department of homeland security was created to prevent terrorist
attacks within the united states, reduce america's vulnerability to terrorism,
minimize the damage, and recover swiftly from an attack.

the goal of homeland security is to restructure the government so that the most
important agencies, which are responsible for protecting the country, can
communicate effectively and act swiftly, under the leadership of one individual
(hall, 2002). the man chosen to lead this department was tom ridge (former
pennsylvania governor). given a budget of $19 billion in 2002, and a proposed $38
billion in 2003, this is in no way an inexpensive plan, but is expected to be
quite efficient in the event of another attack. yet, when asked about homeland
security the public was hesitant, only 13% felt a lot safer, 47% a little safer,
while 39% did not feel any safer (hall, 2002).

most states have implemented their own form of homeland security. states such as
pennsylvania have created a specific system for citizens to know how to spot and
report suspicious behavior (pennsylvania homeland security, 2003). this system has
a step-by-step acronym for citizens to follow when they come in contact with
peculiar behavior that might indicate terrorist activity. this acronym is known as
salute:

s- size (jot down the number of people, gender, ages, and physical descriptions)
a- activity (describe exactly what they are doing)
l- location (provide exact location)
u- uniform (describe what they are wearing, including shoes)
t- time (provide date, time, and duration of activity)
e- equipment (describe vehicle, make, color etc., license plate, camera, guns,
etc.) (pennsylvania homeland security, 2003)
other states have followed suit. new york and the district of columbia have made
their own changes regarding homeland security. in new york they have an office of
public security as well as a senior advisor to the governor for counter-terrorism.

the department of homeland security has five major department components. they are
listed as:

border and transportation security (bts)

emergency preparedness and response (epr)
science and technology (s&t)
information analysis and infrastructure protection (iaip)
management (u. s. department of homeland security, 2003)
prior to the creation of the department of homeland security, asis had formed its
own councils that are similar to the divisions of the homeland security
department. the transportation council within the asis website coincides with the
bts division in the homeland security department. both focus on the security of
the transportation systems within our country. another council created by asis is
the disaster management council. this council is equivalent to the epr component
of the homeland security department. they were both formed to create emergency
response measures for our nation in the event of a terrorist attack or natural
disaster (asis international, 2003). these two organizations and their sub-
divisions have the potential to form a strong liaison.

private industries have also been affected since the attacks on september 11th.
security in most work places has been raised. those who have been considering
installing new means of security were ordered to put them in as soon as possible.
in the security management magazine they noted that, "attention was being focused
on better visitor access controls, better elevator controls, and more surveillance
that included some form of automated 'intelligent' software that can, for example
send an alarm when a person leaves a bag or parks a truck where they shouldn't"
(harowitz, 2001, p.42).

conclusion
prior to the terrorist attacks of september 11th, liaisons within security,
government, and private industries were in place but not actively maintained.
after the attacks, it became obvious that the current liaisons were not strong
enough. new measures have been taken to strengthen these relations with the hopes
of preventing any future terrorist attacks. even though these new measures have
not been put into full effect, should the situation arise, we are better prepared
to prevent and recover from terrorist attacks.
references

asis international. (2003). ansir: awareness of national security issues and

response. retrieved april 27, 2003, from http://www.fbi.gov.

cnn news. (september 6, 2003). a huge government reorganization for homeland

security. retrieved april 9, 2003, from http://cnn.usnews.

gips, michael a. (2002, september). reexamining premises for high rise design.
security management, 46-82.

hall, mimi. (november 26, 2002). new homeland security faces challenges. retrieved
april 9, 2003, from http://web.lexis-nexis.com

harowitz, sherry l. (2001, november). rebuilding on security's solid foundation.

security management, 42-44.

hertig, christopher a. (2002). counter terrorism and vip protection. davies in

minion, (ed.), protection officer training manual, (pp. 142-149). boston:
butterworth-heinemann.

hertig, christopher a. (2003). investigation: concept and practices for security

professionals, davies in minion, (ed.), protection officer training manual,
(pp. 17-19). boston: butterworth-heinemann.

law enforcement and private security sources and areas of conflict. (august,
1976). private security advisory council. 2-5.

pennsylvania homeland security. (march 26, 2003). spotting and reporting

suspicious behavior in pennsylvania is as easy as 1, 2, 3. retrieved april 27,
2003, from: http://www.homelandsecurity.state.pa.us.

u.s. department of homeland security. (2003). dhs organization. retrieved april

30, 2003, from http://www.dhs.gov.

bio-sketch

linda kropp is a junior at york college of pennsylvania. she transferred to york

as a junior from the state university of new york, albany. she is majoring in
criminal justice and is a current member of asis.
kylee notaro is a sophomore at york college of pennsylvania. she is majoring in
criminal justice with a minor in information systems.
lindsay sokol is a sophomore at york college of pennsylvania and a current asis
member. she is majoring in criminal justice with a minor in sociology.

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