PROTECTING THE 2018 MARATHON
No known threats, but FBI, police plan to be prepared
Federal agents and local police are looking at a full range of potential threats from shooters to weaponized vehicles as they plan security for next month’s marathon, Boston FBI chief Harold “Hank” Shaw said yesterday.
Shaw did not indicate that authorities have detected any known threat to the April 16 event — a 26.2-mile race from Hopkinton to the Back Bay. But he said security officials don’t plan on being caught with their guard down.
“We’re consistently looking at how that threat is morphing, whether it be the threat of the potential active shooter, whether it be vehicles used as a device for terrorism,” he said. “And all those things are factored into the greater plan of how we’re going to protect
... whether it be the marathon, whether it be last year’s Sail Boston, whether it be the fireworks on the Esplanade, whether it be the Head of the Charles.
“The biggest thing,” Shaw stressed, “is the need for good intelligence will drive how we’re resourcing for that special event.”
Three people were killed and hundreds others injured on April 15, 2013, when ISIS sympathizers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev detonated two homemade pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line on Boylston Street.
The two brothers, who lived in Cambridge, had entered the United States with their parents as refugees from Kyrgyzstan of Chechen descent. Tamerlan, 26, was killed days later in a shootout with police. Dzhokhar, now 24, is under a federal death sentence.
Federal agents cooperate with state and local police departments on intelligence and security measures for the Boston Marathon and other major crowd events — an effort that ramped up in the wake of the marathon bombing, which put Boston on the map globally as a terrorism target.
Wellesley police Lt. Jeffrey Renzella, overseeing security for his town’s 3.5-mile stretch of the race, said police will be on the lookout for explosive devices, but high-profile shootings like last year’s deadly Las Vegas massacre have officials concerned about copycats.
“Active shooters are definitely on everyone’s minds, especially after Las Vegas and what’s happened recently,” Renzella said, adding that while Wellesley doesn’t have high-rise buildings, police are still preparing for the possibility of an elevated attack. “It’s definitely a concern, we plan for everything. We pay attention to trends in crimes.”
“We plan for all conceivable incidents and hazards, manmade and natural,” state police spokesman David Procopio said in a statement. “We work closely with federal law enforcement agencies, the Massachusetts National Guard, and local police departments from towns and cities along the route to make security as airtight as possible.”
Renzella said Wellesley police meet with other departments along the route, as well as college police departments, to discuss security with the FBI several times a month over the months leading up to the marathon to discuss intelligence and best practices.
“There’s so many different contingencies we have to plan for, the FBI is great at presenting trends that are local, national or international that we have to keep an eye out for,” Renzella said.
Other threats authorities have taken measures to address in the past include drones, and backpacks and coolers that could be used to hide bombs. The race route and crowds are under heavy scrutiny by uniformed and plainclothes police, as well as video surveillance.