No agency has an unlimited budget of manpower and money. Even if they did, there are still going to be limitations. In the case of the WHCD, it was located in a Hilton that still was operating. The people in that hotel still have rights, as does the hotel itself. For that reason, the Secret Service has limits to its power and what it can do to protect those in their care.
When I was in the military, we used a layered system. This is a much more effective use of resources, and is also the same system used by the Secret Service.
Property boundary:
The property line of the facility or event. This is often secured by police directing traffic, employees of the location (i.e. Hilton employees) Generally, they are there to keep casual people out of the way. This filters out many if not most of the people in the area, and allows the next layer to concentrate on those who make it through. In the case of the WHCD, this area would be the grounds of the hotel and the streets immediately surrounding it.
The Controlled area:
This is a layer that is monitored and watched, but people in this area can’t pose a real threat. This area would have been the hotel building itself. Access is minimally controlled, mostly by asking people who enter to prove that they have legitimate business there. For example, show a room key to prove you are a guest of the hotel.
The Restricted Area:
This is an area where people have access to things that you want to protect. This would be the first layer that is protected by the Secret Service. People entering this area need an invitation, they will be searched on entry, and are carefully screened and monitored. The restricted area in this case would have been the ballroom itself, with the magnetometers being the control point allowing entrance to the restricted area. Our shooter made it to one such checkpoint and tried shooting his way through. He didn’t make it past the checkpoint, which is why the checkpoint is there.
The Exclusion Area
Access to this area is extremely limited. No one gets in here unless they are expressly authorized. This area would be the President’s escape route, where the CAT team is located, and other sensitive areas. No one is allowed in here unless they are Secret Service or are escorted by them.
The system is all about defense in depth:
Each inner layer adds more stringent access control. You don’t jump straight into an exclusion area—you pass through multiple controlled boundaries, with authorization becoming progressively stricter.
Access → Clearance → Invitation → Explicit designation
In the case of the shooter at the Hilton, the shooter penetrated the outer layer by simply being a guest at the hotel. That allowed him into the controlled area. However, he wasn’t authorized to go any further. He tried to go deeper, but only made it to the limits of the control point- he never even made it to the stairs that descended to the next layer.
Had he done so, he would have faced more agents who were better armed and had looser rules of engagement.
This is how layered security works. Your own house is the same- someone who knocks on your door to deliver a package is in the controlled area. If you open the door to accept the package and he attempts to push his way in (to the restricted area), but you tackle him just inside the door, that wasn’t a failure of security if he didn’t reach the bedroom where your loved ones are sleeping (the exclusion area).
Sure, this guy penetrated the outer layer. You can’t make the outer layer absolute. Hotels, city streets, and public venues must keep functioning, and there simply isn’t enough money or manpower to search every guest, lock down entire buildings indefinitely, or abuse people’s rights. Even for high-profile events, full “sterilization” of a large hotel is often impractical or politically unacceptable. The outer layer will always be porous by design, more of a filter than a brick wall. You accept risk at the outer edge. You manage risk in the middle. You eliminate risk at the core.
0 Comments