Aug 29, 2008 7:18 pm US/Central
Secret Service Preps Communication Center For RNC
(WCCO)
The Republican Convention will bring more FBI agents to Minnesota than any event in the state's history.
For more than week, many of those agents have gathered in two undisclosed locations. One is set up to take in and process terrorism or criminal intelligence. The other is set up to operate a crisis management headquarters, if needed.
"I have no reason to believe that anything is going to occur that will trigger the activation of that center, but my greatest concern is any disruption of the event," said Special FBI Agent-in-Charge Ralph Boelter.
A third central law enforcement communications center has been set up, too. It's a large room filled with 100 desks for various law enforcement agencies, infrastructure corporations, transportation operations and more.
It has large television screens with feeds from cable television networks and live video from all over Minneapolis and St. Paul. The communications center was relatively quiet on Friday.
"I expect Monday afternoon, there's going to be a lot of chatter," said Ed Donovan with the U.S. Secret Service. "It's going to be very active."
The Secret Service sets up similar Communication Centers during designated national special security events. The RNC will be the 27th NSSE event since a 1998 presidential directive authorizing them. The 26th event was the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
"We've done Super Bowls, we've done State of the Union addresses, inaugurations," recalled Donovan.
The Center is staffed 24 hours a day during the Convention. Events ranging from traffic jams to protests to suspicious packages will be communicated to the entire room on the big-screen televisions.
"I pick up the phone, the public works guy here answers the phone, and immediately we have the sand trucks we need to clear an accident or a tow truck we need to get somebody off the freeway," said St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington.
The communications center will be fully operational the weekend before the convention starts.
"I think we've got it down pretty good," said Donovan. "We have a lot of experience at managing these sorts of events."
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
