9-11 daily dose

GILROY
– The second Sept. 11 since this nation experienced its most terrible one has passed. And with the passing so go the memorials that last week re-marked the fateful day the United States, and the world, forever changed.
GILROY – The second Sept. 11 since this nation experienced its most terrible one has passed. And with the passing so go the memorials that last week re-marked the fateful day the United States, and the world, forever changed.
Understandably, many Americans – Gilroyans among them – have pushed down the anger and sorrow that was so easily rekindled by the anniversary as they headed back to work this week, perhaps as though the morose recollection never happened. When trying to function in everyday life, repression can help some cope.
But understanding 9-11, finding ways to prevent it from happening again, and knowing how to deal with it if it ever does have become part of the normal work routine for many in the Gilroy workforce, such as police officers and firefighters.
For the professionals whose job it is to make us safer today than we were two years ago, denial would be a recipe for disaster.
In the wake of Sept. 11, 2001, law enforcement and rescue professionals across the civilized world had to take a practical approach to making the world a safer place, as difficult as it may have been to cast aside an emotional one. And while this small garlic town may feel insulated from a terrorist attack, the changes in the normal workday for local police and firefighters have landed here, too.
“I think what 9-11 probably did for us more than anything was bring us an awareness of the need for communication between all law enforcement,” Gilroy Police Capt. Debbie Moore said. “What came out of the tragedy was recognizing the need for quick, rapid communication through law enforcement branches.”
That speedy communication between county, state and federal authorities is managed through the California Anti-terrorism Information Center (CATIC), a system of telephone and Internet communication that notifies law enforcement of potential hazards and hyper-political locations nationwide.
“It’s a quick way of getting everyone on the same page,” Moore said.
On a countywide level, Moore said, there is similar coordination through the county Office of Emergency Services. The OES organizes plans with county departments, local cities and special districts to respond to and recover from disasters.
From bomb scares and chemical terrorism to threats to water supplies, OES partners communicate with one another any time there are events in the region that could trigger terrorist action.
“For the last two years, we’ve been meeting once a month or quarterly to share information about events that could lead to mutual aid requests,” Moore said. “It’s another way of getting on the same page so we can be ready to help out somewhere else in the county.”
Similarly, other law enforcement units in the region would respond to Gilroy if a terrorist event ever hit here.
Firefighting personnel in Gilroy are also part of the post 9-11 communication improvements.
“I don’t know if I’d say police and firefighters are more cooperative because we always cooperated, but there’s certainly a stronger alliance,” Clet said. “We all know we need to be working together, especially in the event there is a disaster.”
For more than a year, local police and firefighters have been meeting monthly just to discuss public safety issues, Gilroy Fire Chief Jeff Clet said. The sessions are called public safety command staff meetings, and they’re an example of an alliance that didn’t exist in Gilroy pre-9-11.
The meetings can cover regional news affecting the two agencies as well as local happenings within the Gilroy police and fire departments.
Both Moore and Clet said the post-9-11 world has opened the door not only to more communication, but additional funding, too.
Gilroy Fire Department will be the recipient of $18,315 in federal grants that will supply local firefighters with infrared cameras for searches in the dark, protective chemical suits and special gas masks for attacks from weapons of mass destruction.
“The philosophy after 9-11 is that we see ourselves as first responders to a terrorist event,” Clet said. “We never really thought about terrorism like that before 9-11, but now, anywhere in the county we could respond as part of mutual-aid plan.”
Gilroy Police Department will be a likely recipient of similar grants, although the funds have just recently been made available.
Moore said already all GPD officers have bulletproof helmets, equipment that became a necessity after the Columbine massacre. Once funding allocations are worked out, Moore said, all GPD officers will have gas masks that only assault teams carry now.
Moore said a typical patrol day hasn’t changed much in the last two years, although calls that will come into dispatchers have somewhat.
“People are just more aware nowadays,” Moore said. “We get more calls based upon people’s suspicions, when before 9-11 they may not have thought about making that call.”
Moore recalls one phone call GPD received reporting a suspicious aircraft flying near buildings. Once police investigated the call, officers discovered the caller had spotted a local stunt pilot doing aerial tricks.
“Within a week, we had numerous calls coming in where people were in fear that someone was crashing this plane into a building,” Moore said.
History may judge those numerous phone calls some day as evidence of a society gone paranoid. However, it could be a decision born out of fear that, in times like these, becomes a life-saving act.
Case in point: this region’s water supply.
On Sept. 5, the FBI warned that terrorists might try to poison food or water supplies, and senior bureau officials said al-Qaida was determined to attack Americans at home even though the organization appears to have a relatively small United States presence.
In Gilroy, the warning triggered the same level of surveillance over the city’s water supply as any other day since 9-11, said Operations Manager Dan Aldridge.
City wells, which supply 100 percent of Gilroy’s drinking water, are monitored by staff daily. Water is tested and entry into well sites is guarded.
“We don’t like to give any information out to the public when it comes to our security system, but if there was an intrusion we’d know it,” Aldridge said.
Similar precautions are now a part of daily routines for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, Spokesman Mike DiMarco said. Amid the miles of pipelines and canals and scores of reservoirs and wells that serve water to millions, there are video monitors, gated entries and security personnel nowadays.
“For years and years, we kind of went on the assumption that because it is everyone’s water supply everyone just sort of keeps an eye on it,” DiMarco said. “9-11 changed that mindset.”
DiMarco says the higher level of security has not impacted water rates, although other factors have led to their increase. The first year after 9-11 the water district borrowed from its “rainy day” funds to cover the increase in security. Now, security is interwoven into regular operating budget expenses.
DiMarco said that in a post-9-11 world even an agency like a water district sees the world, and itself, differently. Mechanics and engineers are no longer just mechanics and engineers, DiMarco acknowledges, they are a line of defense against terrorism.
“I don’t think anyone of us takes for granted any longer the facilities we have here,” DiMarco said.