Information Keeps Boston Secure

The key to Boston’s success in combating the threat of terrorism will be improving information sharing among both law enforcement agencies and community members, said Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans yesterday at the Boston Public Library.

“Information sharing is the biggest weapon in fighting terrorism and it must be expanded in order to sufficiently prevent terrorism in both Boston and across the U.S.,” Evans said to a crowd of about 19 students and citizens.

According to Evans, the problem is law enforcement historically has avoided disclosing information across its respective departments. He said we need to bridge this gap.

Evans cited Boston’s vast improvement in terrorist prevention since the Sept. 11 attacks and stressed the police department’s determination in continuing to improve prevention.

“The city has done an awful lot since the attacks and we have dealt specifically with ways to detect possible terrorist attacks and administer any emergency responses to the possibilities of attacks,” he said.

The Boston Police Department has created four levels of alert for attacks, each ranging in order of importance and severity. The BPD has also come up with traffic and evacuation plans of the city in order to better prepare for possible terrorist attacks.

“We have made many evacuation plans for many buildings around the city and have also mapped out buildings to the point that local police districts have a disk they can pop into a computer to tell them everything they need to know about a specific building in the event of an attack”, Evans said.

Evans also stressed the importance of the rights of Arab-Americans in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“We need to preserve Arab Muslim-American rights because they are important members of our community, and I am alarmed at the increase in hate crimes committed toward Muslims that have gone from three before the terrorist attacks to 43 since,” he said.

Two of the other speakers at the event, John Roberts, Executive Director of the Boston chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and AAmir Rehman, Director of Outreach for the Islamic Society of Boston, spoke about the issues facing the local and national Muslim community and the U.S. government’s possible violation of Muslim-American and immigrant rights in response to the terrorist attacks.

“We are paying a cost of our liberty due to the attacks and I hope that as we go about dealing with this crisis we come out establishing both freedom and security in the U.S.,” Roberts said.

He added he was not sure whether we can come out of this with a society that is both secure and free.

Rehman talked about the adversity the Muslim community has faced since the attacks.

“We live in fear to the point where many Muslims are afraid to go to their mosques, and we have also had to accept the racial profiling that has gone on since the attacks,” he said.

Rehman, while stressing that Americans need to be safe, added some of the recent legislation created is not conducive to America’s acceptance of all people.

“We are teaching people that it is okay to judge someone based on the way that they look,” he said. “And this is not an American ideal and should not be tolerated by the American people.”