Task force assesses terrorism threat

State and local officials meet with the governor Thursday to address the job ahead.

[Times photo: John Pendygraft] Hillsborough sheriff's Sgt. Ron Hartley, right, and Deputy Dave Thomas patrol the waters around Tampa on Thursday. Since the terrorist attacks, "marine security is up at least 400 percent," Hartley said.

By AMY HERDY

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 12, 2001

TAMPA -- Hillsborough Sheriff Cal Henderson says that when it comes to preparing for a terrorist attack, there is only so much anyone can do.

"We won't be ready 100 years from now for something like what occurred in New York," Henderson said Thursday. "It's like fighting crime. We're successful some of the time . . . and for the rest, it would be a matter of trying to clean up afterward."

Yet state and local officials are doing what they can, Henderson said, and toward that end have organized a task force to draw up a "threat assessment" and carry out its recommendations.

"We're looking at what we need to do short-term and long-term to be more prepared than we are," he said.

Henderson, who represents sheriffs for the Tampa Bay region, drove to Orlando Thursday to meet with Gov. Jeb Bush and the chairs of the other seven regions in the state, as well as the commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The chairs plan to meet with firefighters, paramedics, health and medical personnel and emergency management staff in the next week or so, Henderson said, to "shore up" planning for how to respond to an event such as the attacks in New York and Washington.

"The country as a whole is in the same position" of racing to get ready for another attack, he said. "We have had terrorist training and mass casualty training -- but to say we are prepared for that, there didn't appear to be the need."

Henderson declined to elaborate on what the assessment found. Many short-term goals, he said, had been addressed with extra personnel, and long-term goals included training and consistency in order to not be lulled into a false sense of security. "The threat could occur at any time," he said.

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