Alex DiGiovanna
Professor Gulinello
HLS 1005
March 9th 2015
Threats to National Monuments and Icons:
I. Terrorist Threats
1. Bombs
A. Perimeter must be secured to prevent bombs strapped to vehicles, carried in bags, etc.
a. Road blocks
b. Checkpoints with armed guards
c. Metal detectors going into important buildings (White house, Capital building, etc.)
B. Monitoring the area around important places, including airspace
a. Some sort of air traffic control restricting access, maybe requiring vehicles to have special passes in order to travel on certain streets, etc
2. Personal Attacks (Important figures such as the president can be considered Icons)
A. Sniper/Gunfire
a. Keep watch over entire area when someone important is in public
b. Manage perimeter, only specified guests in area
c. Lessen amount of time the person is vulnerable (for example, open top car that Kennedy was shot in)
B. Miscellaneous
a. Kidnapping, basically the same as above, monitor the area an such
b. Biological/chemical threat, check anything that can contain pathogens/chemicals (mail, food)
3. Miscellaneous
A. Good border control can prevent known terrorists or reported allies from entering country
B. Communication between different organizations and different levels of law enforcement can aid in apprehending any terrorists who may already be in domestic territory
II. Natural Disasters
1. Fire
Make sure any important buildings are up to date on current fire codes, have easily accessible emergency exits, as well as other fire safety precautions
Keep flammable material stored securely, with restricted access, make sure it is not near anything that can create sparks
2. Hurricanes
Not a threat to all monuments around the globe, but the D.C area has potential to be hit
Not really preventable, however evacuation drills, storage for supplies in case of emergency, and people trained to respond to common injuries are all ways to mitigate potential damage
3. Miscellaneous Disasters
Similar to hurricanes, have supplies (food, water, medical) in a readily available, but secure location
Have people trained to respond to common after-effects (fire, injuries, earthquake aftershocks, etc) available
Have law enforcement ready to prevent looting, and to calm the public
Be ready to use media resources to help search and rescue efforts if needed
III. Miscellaneous Threats
1. Random criminal act
A. For important people, generally same precautions as terrorist threats (I:2)
B. For buildings/monuments keep watch over perimeter, ban dangerous substances/firearms etc.
2. Crazy unpredictable event
A. Have various contacts, or ability to get contatcs that might not every seem useful, but could potentially come in handy
a. For example, if a wild animal was on the loose running around D.C, the number of someone trained to subdue escaped animals would be extremely helpful
Methods: First of all, this specific category is interesting in that certain methods and security ideas need to be morphed due to the nature of national icons. For example, while a barbed wire fence is usually always better than a regular fence, the White House is supposed to be a tourist attraction that looks almost unintimidating, which barbed wire would detract from. I decided to use qualitative methods to determine the largest threats, as the main reason this industry is critical is because of national morale, which is something that’s hard to give a monetary value to. With this in mind, the main method used would be the Decision Matrix. Ranking all of the above threats in order by both
