Sheriff: Metro, community must be ready

Keith Paul

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002 | 9:09 a.m.

As Metro Police shifted into anti-terrorism and homeland security efforts after the Sept. 11 attacks, the number of murders continued to mount and the amount of fatal accidents and burglaries also increased -- as crime rates throughout the country have been on the rise.

Nevada's largest police force found itself trying to combat the threat of terrorism and also trying to maintain the regular investigative work and patrol efforts.

Sheriff Jerry Keller said when he moved 21 additional officers to McCarran International Airport after the attacks to help with security, those officers came off the streets.

"That's some officers from each area command, but we needed to do it because of the amount of people that move through our airport," he said. "We need to make sure they are protected, but we continue to protect the residents."

Keller is quick to point out that while five of the terrorist were in Las Vegas in the weeks and months before the Sept. 11 attacks, there is no information that points to Las Vegas being a target. However, he said the department and the community needs to continue to prepare.

"Homeland security is not just a police issue, it's a community issue," he said.

Sgt. Rick Barela was a graveyard-shift supervisor when the attacks came and said the types of calls police received changed in the aftermath.

In the weeks after the attacks the number of calls about suspicious packages increase, the amount of times people spotted white powder escalated after a few anthrax-laced letters started showing up in Washington and several people in other cities were exposed to the deadly virus.

"It was a nightly event that there was the report of powder or a suspicious package," Barela said. "There was a very heightened sense of fear among the public."

Barela said the officers were still able to respond to all emergency calls, but some quality of life calls -- such as loud-music complains -- didn't get answered as quickly.

Officers also found themselves getting training that was never going to be part of the standard policing education.

"Every officer was trained on weapons of mass destruction, biological weapons, how to put on the (hazardous material) suits and how to administer antidotes for certain biological agents," Lt. Vincent Cannito, a department spokesman, said.

Metro also moved additional detectives to the Nevada Joint Terrorism Task Force and had more intelligence detectives get high-level federal security clearance.

Keller also created an office of homeland security and appointed then-Capt. Bill Conger to head the office.

Keller said he wanted one person to be the center of all the information coming in from various units at Metro.

Conger said homeland security is meant to focus on prevention, not response if an attack occurs. The department has created an 18-page booklet named HANDSS (Home and Neighborhood Disaster Safety & Security Preparedness) giving advice on preparing residents' homes and listing what to have in case of an attack or disaster.

The department is going to print 600,000 booklets and get them out to every home in the Las Vegas Valley. But Keller said just how the booklet is going to make it to each home has not been determined.

"We're training the cops and making them more aware of potential terrorism activities, and we need the community to know if they see something that looks suspicious, someone needs to know about it," Conger said. "Some citizens have a tendency to see something and say 'I don't want to get involved.' But 9-11 necessitates that we all get involved."

The department saw a change it wasn't expecting following the terrorist attacks. On Oct. 22 Keller, who only six weeks earlier maintained there was no reason he saw not to run for re-election, announced he would not seek a third term.

"I wanted to commit to prepare the police department and the community in homeland security," he said. "I didn't want to make homeland security a political issue. Homeland security is too important to take time off for campaigning."