Metro to put staff in Homeland Security center

Jen Lawson

Thursday, June 30, 2005 | 9:51 a.m.

In what one Metro Police official called a major step forward in the plan to prevent a terrorist attack on Las Vegas, the department will be stationing a detective in the Department of Homeland Security's command center in Washington, D.C. to monitor threat information first-hand.

Sheriff Bill Young signed the paperwork Tuesday to finalize the arrangement.

Metro will be one of five police departments to have a presence at the nation's homeland security headquarters. The others are the Virginia State Police and police from New York City, the District of Columbia, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

"It's basically the heartbeat for homeland security," Young said Monday of the headquarters. "We missed out a few times, at least in my opinion, in getting it (threat information) in a timely manner. It's quite a good deal for us to have someone there."

No later than Aug. 1, six detectives from Metro's counterintelligence section are to begin rotations of about 45 days each to Washington, D.C., said Deputy Chief Mike McClary, the head of the department's homeland security bureau.

Metro will be paying the officers' salaries, but the federal government is footing the bill for everything else, such as the apartment rental, meals, dry cleaning, transportation and overtime, McClary said.

Young signed Metro up for a year with the option of renewing the arrangement.

Homeland security representatives approached Young last fall in the nation's capital and extended the offer, saying the department "would find value in being in the operations center," McClary said.

"The sheriff's approach is that prevention is the key," he said. "Prevention comes down to one thing -- information. Here we have a place where all this information comes into in real time, and we should have someone down there."

"This is a major step in the sheriff's plan to prevent a (terrorist) event."

More than 20 federal agencies are included in the Department of Homeland Security, including the U.S. Customs Service, Secret Service, Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The operations center serves as the hub where threat information coming in from various sources, including the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, is analyzed 24 hours a day.

Jim Spinello, Clark County's assistant director of administrative services and member of the Nevada Homeland Security Commission, said he commended Young for "being able to raise the level of concern putting us on the map" in terms of homeland security.

"We've received reports that we are a potential target and this is a demonstration of that, and we will do everything we possibly can to thwart any problem," he said.

McClary said this plan was not put in place because the Department of Homeland Security or the FBI dropped the ball. But, he said, the distance between the capital and Las Vegas could result in information being diluted.

"What we hope to get out of this is faster, clearer communication," he said. "Las Vegas is a unique community like no place else in the country. Having the opportunity to respond to our unique needs in Washington, D.C., can't do anything but benefit the safety of our community."

A major breakdown in communication between federal and local authorities was exposed two years ago when testimony at a trial of an alleged terrorist revealed a possible plot to target Las Vegas. At the heart of the matter was material found during a raid of a Detroit apartment on Sept. 17, 2001. Authorities looking for a man on a terrorist watch list found fake documents, airport badges and a videotape that the government said showed possible targets of terrorism, including the MGM Grand on the Strip and Disneyland.

Local law enforcement agencies found out about the video and possible threat about a year and a half later, in April 2003, during the trial in Detroit.

At the time, Young expressed anger that federal officials didn't tell him of the threat, and received a face-to-face apology from FBI chief Robert Mueller for the lack of communication, although the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit was thought to be to blame.

Another perceived snub from federal officials also came in the spring of 2003, when Las Vegas was left off a list of 30 urban areas most likely to be terrorist targets and was denied a portion of $500 million in federal funds given to help cities fight terrorism.

Although no credible threats have been made recently against Sin City, the possibility is always there, authorities said. "Unfortunately, Las Vegas has been mentioned as a potential target for people who want to do us harm," McClary said. "We are on the bad guys' radar, and we have a responsibility to make this place as safe as we can make it."