MONITORING UNREST
Election command centers set up in case of problems
The feds are setting up a “command post” with an eye on unrest around the election, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said.
“In anticipation of this electoral cycle, we will have a command post that we set up and man in coordination with the FBI and other agencies, so that if a response is needed, a response will happen immediately,” said Lelling, the top federal prosecutor in the state.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to follow-up questions about physically what or where the command center is, and the specifics of who’s involved in it.
Undersecretary for Law Enforcement Terrence Reidy of Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration said state officials are meeting with police, fire and other entities, including the National Guard, and will have a “centrally located command center.”
“People recognize potential problems that could happen,” Reidy said. “People have prepared.”
The 2020 presidential election will take place Nov. 3, though voting already is underway in many states. The election is shaping up to be one of the most fraught in generations, with political tensions through the roof on both sides. President Trump, who’s down in the polls, has repeatedly declined to say definitively whether he’ll accept the results of the election, instead slamming some of the now-widespread voteby-mail processes. Observers worry that no matter which side wins, angry opposition will take to the streets afterward.
Last week, the Herald reported that Boston officers had received emails from police brass canceling all vacation time and personal days for the week of the election “to provide sufficient public safety.”
Reidy pointed to state and local interagency collaborations, naming the State
Police fusion center and the Boston Regional Intelligence Center as important parts of the response.
Lelling said that of the groups on either side of the political spectrum “that might try to disrupt an election, or that might engage in violence depending on which way they think the election is going, one of the primary methods we use to track those groups and what they’re doing is social media exploitation.”
The prosecutor added that all these groups do their primary organizing on social media — so that’s where the cops are looking.
“It’s not a secret to say that we’ve got quite good at forensic analysis of social media platforms — that’s a lot of what fusion centers do,” Lelling said.
Hampden Police Chief Jeff Farnsworth, head of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said his organization met with the FBI on Thursday.
“In law enforcement, we love to plan for the worst and hope for the best,” Farnsworth said. On election night in these fusion centers, he said, “Our hope is that we have a lot of people who are eating pizza and are bored.”