Wednesday, September 12, 2001

Fort Worth, TCU prepared to deal with crisis, officials say
By Jordan Blum
Skiff Reporter

Following terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, Fort Worth and TCU officials said they feel confident in their abilities to deal with a crisis situation.

Both Fort Worth and TCU Police Departments have contingency plans for reacting to a potential attack and stress the quality of its personnel.

The city of Fort Worth is on full alert and every member of the Fort Worth Police Department and Fire Department is on standby, said Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr at a press conference Tuesday morning at City Hall.

“Every call is being taken very seriously, but the city will continue to operate and keep everyone on ready to respond,” Barr said. “I think that our community is prepared to respond when disaster strikes. It hasn’t hit our city, but it has hit the nation.”

Fort Worth Police Chief Ralph Mendoza said the city must send a message to prevent potential threats the city could face.

“We want to project a physical appearance across the city, with a full police presence throughout the area,” Mendoza said.

TCU Police also have an emergency response plan set in place to curb any potential threat to students and faculty, TCU Police Chief Steve McGee said.

McGee said the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington have made them more cautious but won’t affect their protocol plans because they already have plans in place.

“TCU has two police command centers on opposite ends of the campus,” McGee said. “So, even if something happens (on one side of campus), we can still fully operate.”

Marsha Anderson, spokeswoman for the city of Fort Worth, said the city is as prepared as possible for any potential substantiated attack.

“The city has an incident command team composed of a variety of city employees across the city who are trained yearly,” Anderson said. “Plus, we’ve had experience with emergencies in the past when you consider the tornado and the shooting at Wedgewood (Baptist Church).”

Ronald Burns, criminal justice professor, said there is not any way to prevent terrorism.

“There are many things that we could do in the city, but people may see these options as invasions of privacy,” Burns said. “We can put metal detectors in movie theaters, but do people actually want that? If someone is willing to give up their life to hijack a plane, they can’t always be stopped.”

Following the attack, several buildings and schools in Fort Worth were voluntarily evacuated.

Jeff Tucker, TCU police officer and a trained bomb technician, said the campus is as secure as possible, but it is impossible to prevent everything when people have enough determination and resources.

“When I worked with the bomb squad in Fort Worth we had about five to eight (bomb) devices reported a month,” Tucker said. “It’s best if these situations aren’t always reported, because if there was a public alert with every device or bomb threat that would create pandemonium and hinder us. We’ve got some very good professionals on this campus that are highly trained police officers who aren’t just ticket writers,” Tucker said.

Jordan Blum
j.d.blum@student.tcu.edu.