Law Enforcement Technology May 2013

By Mark Lang

“At the completion of this article another terrorist attack has taken the lives of fellow Americans at a major sporting event. These particular cowards who attacked us ran, but ultimately were dealt with by the fine efforts of the Boston-area law enforcement. Sporting events and venues are and will continue to be an attractive target until we get serious about securing them on a consistent basis. It’s a huge undertaking, no doubt, but isn’t one life worth it?

Football games, ice hockey, NASCAR racing…every day our friends and family attend events like these with an expectation of safety and security. But, this is not the world we live in today. In 2004 the FBI compiled information that public sporting venues could be the target of a terrorist attack. It is always a difficult task to catch known terrorist cells or lone wolf types in the act of surveillance; these types are guaranteed to target large public venues. It is not a question of “if” but rather “when.” I look at what happened in Boston and I view ‘the marathon’ not necessarily as a race, but as a sporting event. It’s time we make the soft target, the stadiums and arenas, more hardened.”