Sept.
11 marks no changes in security
By Alisha Gomez
Summer Forty-Niner
As
America hits the one-year anniversary of
the Sept. 11 attacks, Cal State Long Beach
University Police has made no drastic changes
to campus security, but instead is staying
well-prepared and informed in the event
an attack should take place.
“Nothing that has been identified to us
would lead us to believe, or begin to believe,
that the campus itself is a real [terrorist
threat] issue,” Capt. Stan Skipworth of
the University Police said.
Since the University Police participates
in seven different agencies or committees
which address various safety issues, Skipworth
said that those frequent meetings have not
identified anything that would lead the
police to be concerned that CSULB is a target
for acts of terrorism.
Sgt. Fernando Solorzano of the police agreed
with Skipworth, but said that the campus
will definitely see the Police’s presence
today.
“Every full staff member from detectives
to administration will be dressed in full
uniform and highly visible on campus and
patrolling in cars,” Solorzano said.
“We will fluctuate deployment according
to what we believe will constitute a real
or perceived threat of whatever nature,”
Skipworth added. “If it needs to be, we
will incorporate outside or lateral resources
from either within or outside of the CSU
system.”
Solorzano said that this means depending
on the type of information received from
various agencies and the university will
respond accordingly.
“I think we are a very, very well-informed
agency and I think we’re a very well-informed
university campus as well,” Skipworth said.
“A large part of what our preparation has
depended on is the ability of the people
that we work with across the campus, whether
it is student life or academic affairs or
any type of facility.”
The police are in constant communication
with these people and get a lot of information
from them as to what they may feel is a
concern or something they would like the
police to look into.
“When we seek that information out and we
find what it is that we need to be better
informed on, it prepares us all much better,”
Skipworth said. “And that process has been
reinforced an awful lot, and it’s been focused
on and proven itself even more so over the
past year or so.”
Even communication among the campus is good,
Skipworth said.
“There are colleagues that I work with on
a regular basis that are really impressed
by the nature of the environment that we
share on campus and the commitment everybody
shares to stay informed of things,” Skipworth
said.
Long
Beach Airport Flight Path Not an Issue
When
the attacks first happened, everyone was
a bit concerned about the university being
in the flight path of the Long Beach Airport.
“That’s the flight path, they didn’t alter
it, they didn’t change it,” Skipworth said.
“I don’t how know how they would drag the
runway to make it come in at a different
angle.”
Sharon Diggs-Jackson, Public Relations Officer
for the Long Beach Airport, said that the
approach pattern is a precise science.
“The university has just been built into
the airport’s approach path,” Diggs-Jackson
said. “There is no direct correlation between
the university and the airport in terms
of air traffic security. All air traffic
is controlled by the FAA.”
Skipworth said that the University Police
has communicated with the airport from time
to time on a variety of different things,
asking them questions about to approach
certain scenarios like they see a plane
flying too low, how should the police approach
the situation.
“It’s difficult with the airports because
they all have a different setting, they
all have a different surrounding area,”
Skipworth said.
Some airlines have made changes to their
flight schedules for today. America West
will be flying with less than full flights,
Diggs-Jackson said.
However, Diggs-Jackson said that increased
airport security has been implemented at
all airports, not just Long Beach Airport.
“All airports are undergoing federal assessment
and changes are being made regularly,” Diggs-Jackson
said. “We are getting ready to install the
latest federal mandated changes that have
come from Sept. 11.”
Currently, the airport follows heightened
security measures like enforcing passenger
identification with photo identification.
Passengers are limited to one carry-on bag
and one personal item. Only ticket passengers
are allowed in the passenger-boarding lounge.
The airport has had to increase the presence
and patrols by airport security officers
and the Long Beach Police Department.
Diggs-Jackson said that in terms of the
flight approaches, the FAA has determined
the patterns according to the safest and
best route for the aircraft.
Campus has more than one organization ready
for disaster
Some on-campus organizations that the police
works with include the Emergency Operations
Center, headed by Sgt. Scott Brown.
“They have done an outstanding job in continuing
to expand our learning and our awareness
of the things that we want to do on a proactive
level and in that rare case, a reactive
level or how we are going to respond to
the situation,” Skipworth said.
The EOC is an all hazards emergency operations
center set up for both natural and technical
disasters, Brown said.
“What goes on here is the management of
the disaster response,” Brown said. “The
actual response is handled by the people
out in the field. In here, this is where
the brain trust meet, so to speak, and manage
the disaster, but literally, it’s for anything
that would affect this campus, or the area
immediately around it.”
Natural disasters are anything from fires
and earthquakes to tsunamis and tornadoes.
Technical disasters could be anything from
bombings, terrorist activity to bio-terrorism.
“In any disaster, whether its technical
or natural, after we initially become aware
of it, the crisis action team, which consists
of the president, the vice president, chief
of police and public affairs will meet and
decide how to react to the disaster, whether
to open a full EOC or if this is something
that the field can handle without opening
the EOC,” Brown said.
If the disaster can be handled without outside
assistance, such as from the city of Long
Beach, and the crisis action team felt the
disaster could be handled in house, then
the EOC would not be opened, Brown said.
“Our first goal is to get people off the
campus as quickly as possible and as smoothly
as possible,” Brown said. “If that’s not
possible and the condition is you can’t
leave, then we are set to shelter people
for a minimum of 72 hours without any outside
aid and that includes aiding the people
across the street.”
Outside aid includes the Long Beach City
Fire Department, police services and anything
else the campus could reasonably ask for
and get, Brown said. Aside from being campus
disaster oriented, CSULB is also a mass
care facility for the county of Los Angeles.
“In a major disaster, people are going to
be coming to us,” Brown said. “And we’re
set to do the best we can for that initial
period [72 hours], but after that we would
definitely be looking for assistance from
the Red Cross and things like that to help
take care of people.”
CSULB also has several hundred people on
campus that have training in light search
and rescue, light medical training and other
similar services, Brown said. There is also
an urban search and rescue team that’s handled
through the office of safety and risk management.
The team is the one that actually rescue
people and things like that, Brown said.
Safety and Risk Management is another on-campus
resource the police works directly with.
The Hazardous Material Team consists of
two staff members from the College of Engineering,
three members from the College of Natural
Science and five members from the Office
of Safety and Risk Management, said George
Alfaro, Hazardous Material Specialist.
“The Hazardous Material Team is trained
up to the first response level,” Alfaro
said. “The responders have extensive training
and are ready to set up response equipment,
such as decontamination stations to setting
up cones, tape and monitoring radio frequencies.”
The team’s members from the College of Engineering
are two technicians that work for the college
and have chemical hazard backgrounds. Members
also go through continuous drills and yearly
training required as a refresher.
In the event of a major chemical hazard,
the team utilizes an outside company, Industrial
Waste Utilization, who will respond to the
hazard within two hours. Such scenarios
may include explosions, which need more
personnel trained at response level A, Alfaro
said. He also said the team is ready and
prepared for Sept. 11, although Alfaro does
not foresee anything happening to the university.
“The chemicals are guarded very well on
this campus,” Alfaro said. “I don’t see
a terrorist type of activity happening at
the university. If anything, there is the
likelihood of lab spills. But, all team
members will be here and are ready to respond.”
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