Linda Brown can’t tell you what she had for lunch yesterday, but the events of the Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks are ingrained in her mind, from the moment she stepped out of the shower at 9:03 a.m.
“When I turned on the news, I actually saw the second plane hit the second tower,” she said, believing then that a fighter jet had accidentally hit the World Trade Center. "Then the camera panned out to show the first tower smoking, and I knew something terrible had happened... it's just one of those things you never forget in your life."
Brown was then a senior Inspector with the U.S. Customs Service at Logan Airport. When she got to work, she found grounded flights and only military planes occasionally patrolling overhead. “There is nothing eerier than walking out onto a busy airport and not having any noise, no flights arriving, no flights taking off, no hustle and bustle around,” she told GBH News
The two American Airlines and United Airlines planes that crashed into the trade center towers were hijacked after flying out of Logan Airport. What happened that day would not only change our experience with air travel, but lead to a metamorphosis in how America secured its public spaces.
Airport Security Overhaul
In 2001, there was very little security to speak of at the airport, according to Brown and other experts. Friends and family could walk right up to a gate without being screened. There was no Customs and Border Protection, let alone a whole Department of Homeland Security agency.
“My biggest concern [pre-9/11] was ensuring that drug smugglers didn't bring drugs across the border. Our number one priority now is ensuring that terrorists don't enter our country,” said Brown, who is currently Boston port director for Customs and Border Protection. “And we've made huge strides in doing that.”
Then-president George W. Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act in November 2001 requiring screening be conducted by federal officials, initiating the birth of the Transportation Security Administration. Now, TSA agents have a large presence in every airport.
Because of 9/11 and the December 2001 shoe-bombing attempt by Richard Reid, TSA requires explosive detection systems nationwide, and requires shoes go through X-ray machines.
The passage of the Homeland Security Act by Congress launched the creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003, fusing the U.S. Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and other agencies covering agriculture, security, and communications.
“Organized crime and white-collar crime was really a focus of some federal investigations, and then all of a sudden terrorism was really, really brought to the forefront,” said Richard Donohue, a policy researcher at RAND Corporation’s Boston office. There was a shift in personnel training, how much money was being allocated to counter terrorism, intelligence, and technology.
At Logan Airport, there are five 3-D imaging machines at check-points and 30 CT machines to check baggage. Patrons walk through 21 full body scanners, raising their arms so the technology can detect nonmetallic weapons or explosives that can be concealed under layers of clothing.
Eleven canine teams trained in San Antonio patrol Logan, with the job of sniffing out explosives.
And the psychology of how people enter the U.S. has changed. Now, said Brown, customs officers have to ask themselves questions like “Is this person standing here coming to the U.S. for the reason that they state they’re coming? Are they really here for school or for a business meeting? What’s the real reason they’re coming?”’
The future of Logan Airport security may involve facial recognition technology, fingerprint and eye scanners, as a part of a controversial pilot program being implemented around the country in the next five years.
“We know we have to stay ahead of the threat. So, the funding will be there for us if and when we need it,” said Daniel Velez, spokesperson for TSA’s New England region.
But that system raises concerns over civil rights violations and is already the subject of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union.
MassPort, which owns and operates Logan Airport, declined to comment on this story, citing respect for the families impacted by the 9/11 attacks.
Regional Cooperation and Communication
Another thing that didn’t exist pre-9/11, according to national security experts, was cohesive communication and analysis.
“That was one of the big problems previously. Right? The three-lettered agencies didn't speak to each other enough,” said Brown. “I think we at CBP learned that lesson, we make sure that we share our information with whoever wants to listen.”
The Boston Regional Intelligence Center, or BRIC, was created in 2005 to share information between many agencies, from the Boston Police Department where it’s housed, to the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and CBP.
The organization, individual task forces, and police departments all share intelligence and perform counter terrorism trainings for staff, including how law enforcement should handle active shooter trainings or a terrorist event at a stadium, and how first responders should deal with those scenarios.
There are over 200 regional task forces that use technology and old school policing to assess domestic and international terrorism, and share with partners in law enforcement.
Joe Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston division, was working in 2001 in New York City next to the World Trade Center, focused on busting Italian crime syndicates.
“It [cooperation] really has created a mechanism for us to effectively and efficiently use all the tools, whether it be in the local, state or federal tool kit, to try to get out ahead of these terrorism threats,” Bonavolonta said. “Right now, the FBI is heavily focused at people with easy access to weapons who are radicalized online and inspired by the global jihadist movement.’”
He pointed to several prominent investigations operated out of Boston, including the arrest and conviction of the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and the arrest and conviction of Tarek Mehanna, who provided material support to Al-Qaeda.
Chris Delmonte is the Chief of Police for the Bridgewater Police Department and heads the Southeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council. For police chiefs like him, the greatest investments in security post 9/11 come from better training, and equipment sharing.
“We worked to secure a mobile command vehicle, and that's a resource that many individual communities couldn’t afford or operate on their own,” he said.
“Even when we talk about our individual communities, being a part of something bigger and greater and more collaborative has been a benefit even to all,” Delmonte said.
Cameras Take Over
Cameras are quiet sentinels in office lobbies, restaurants, airports, manufacturing sites, and many roads, a quiet reminder of how security has hardened since 9/11.
“If you walk around downtown Boston and look around, you're going to see a lot of cameras on the outside of buildings. You're going to see a lot of cameras inside of buildings. And there's quite a few of them that have our logo on them,” said James Marcella of Axis Communications, an international video surveillance manufacturer with a Chelmsford office.
While he wouldn’t disclose specific clients, a GBH contract search found MassDOT and Mass General Hospital, among others, are Axis Communications customers.
Video is used to record activities in private and public spaces, and can be used by law enforcement to review and react, said Marcella. The technology has transitioned from analog in the early 2000s to digital, with alerts for more preventative measures, like people loitering in one spot too long. Image quality has been boosted from low resolution to high megapixels.
The 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing, he said, is an example of how video surveillance was and can be used to track down perpetrators, with tape from stores and businesses along the marathon route.
Just within the MBTA transportation system there are more than 10,000 cameras. Donohue from RAND said the camera system is one of the largest in the country, and has been funded repeatedly through the Department of Homeland Security. In fact, money from the annual Homeland Security Grant Program is often what helps state, local governments, nonprofit agencies and private sector companies pay for surveillance.
Designing Your Way To Safety
Security can also come in the form of urban planning and architecture. Design firm Utile Architecture & Planning created a master plan for City Hall and its plaza four years ago aiming to boost security while keeping the area appealing to visitors and employees.
Entering City Hall, "which was meant to be a kind of effortless kind of flow from outside to inside and up, had to get rethought with security checkpoints and a whole level of apparatus that ended up taking away from the drama of walking into the building,” said Tim Love, principal at the firm and a board member of the Boston Society for Architecture.
Scanners, a conveyer belt, and an information stand were added. Staff and visitors now come in through separate entrances to reduce time in line. A new coffee shop exists to keep visitors happy after their security ordeal, or as they wait for others to pass through the scanners. According to the City of Boston, lobby changes cost $2.1 million.
Commissioner Bill Evans led the Boston Police Department from January 2014 to August 2018, serving immediately after the Boston Marathon Bombings. He’s now head of security for Boston College. Part of boosting security after 9/11, when he was a captain on the force and his brother Paul was commissioner, was thinking outside of the box, he said. “We tried to identify and put ourselves in the position of what would be an attractive target for terrorists who really want to make an impact.”
That included adding fences, gates, and cameras around TD Garden, chemical plants, Fenway Park, and gas tanks in Dorchester.
‘“I remember right away doing a lot of outreach [post 9/11] to all those companies and saying, “I'll identify your weaknesses and how we are going to strengthen them. So, you know, we're watching everyone in and around your premises,”’ said Evans.
Another example of redesigning for security is the renovation of the Federal Reserve Bank building by Halvorson Design Partnership after 9/11.
There is no gap greater than four feet around the building’s perimeter, in order to prevent vehicles from crashing into the building. Bollards create a kind of plaza within a plaza and a concrete raised grass bed creates another barrier, while also providing seating for the public.
“Decisions that were made about the site planning for that project were really a careful assessment about how to protect a federal building, not only because of 9/11, but because of the Oklahoma City bombing and the general vulnerability of federal buildings to terrorist attacks,” said Love.
Infrastructure Changes You Don’t See
There have also been vast security and infrastructure changes that are invisible to civilians.
For example, the National Nuclear Security Administration, NNSA, is part of the Department of Energy, and works to secure radiological materials for use, storage, and disposal. Blood banks, hospitals, research universities, and construction sites can all use those substances for manufacturing, research, and ultraviolet blood therapies.
Emily Adams manages NNSA projects around the U.S., and said in the Boston area alone, they enhanced security at 41 buildings that contain high-activity radiological material, and are working on four more. The organization has also removed and replaced 11 devices that use radiological material in the area.
Over 300 area law enforcement officials have been trained by the NNSA. Training happens weekly on radiological fundamentals, including fictional scenarios involving the use of stolen materials in a dirty bomb attack.
“We've also partnered with the local law enforcement agencies across the Boston area to develop policies and training programs to assist in an effective response should the theft of radioactive material take place,” said Adams.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the attribution of comments from James Marcella of Axis Communications. A prior version of this story misattributed those quotes to another Axis employee.
