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DC Officials Update Inauguration Security Preparations. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired January 15, 2021 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:30:00]

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D), WASHINGTON, DC: I want to introduce now the law enforcement agency for the district of course, in chief, Robert Contee, to speak for MPD. And we will be available for questions members of my entire team who are standing to my left. Chief Contee?

ROBERT CONTEE, ACTING CHIEF, METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT: Every four years, our nation celebrates and honors the continuation and peaceful transition of presidential executive powers. For over one and a half centuries, people have come from all over the world to witness and commemorate this historic event.

However, this year will be significantly different. As we have done since President Lincoln's second inaugural ceremony in 1865, the Metropolitan Police Department members along with our many partners have had the greatest honor of participating in the planning and execution of the presidential inauguration. We know that every MPD member who has had the opportunity to participate in an inaugural event has looked back on the unique experiences for the rest of their lives.

And since the 1890s, members of the outside law enforcement agencies from across the nation have provided vital support to MPD in the inaugural proceedings, and will do so again this year. While things are different this year due to the ongoing public health emergency and the insurrection that took place at the Capitol last week, it rests upon the dedicated law enforcement officers to provide the utmost in safety, security, and professional police service to all those who come to take part in this momentous occasion.

The expertise of each participating law enforcement, public safety, and military agency is critical to the success of a coordinated and executed security plan. The Metropolitan Police Department has carefully planned for resources and personnel for this event, and the additional resources will enable MPD to provide the same great level of quality and professional police service to our communities.

All of our officers will be on hand to participate in ensuring a peaceful day, both for inaugural events and throughout our great city. MPD continually collaborates with our federal partners and monitors various intelligence sources for information regarding possible threats to D.C. At this time, I really would just like to echo the comments of our Mayor, for people to really enjoy this as a virtual event. We are working hard not only to secure the event itself, but also working very hard to reassure the communities of the District of Columbia that we are prepared for this event. Thank you.

BOWSER: Thank you.

OK. With that, we'll take some questions. And I think Suzanna is going to help us get people acknowledged and if you could just state your name and your organization.

MICHAEL BRICE-SADDLER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Sure, yes. This is Michael Brice-Saddler with The Washington Post. My first question is, for the people who live and work downtown in the district. What's the protocol for them if they need to access areas that are currently fenced off?

BOWSER: OK. Thanks for that question. Michael is asking, how does a resident access these secured areas? And I'm going to ask the Secret Service to address that question.

MATT MILLER, SPECIAL AGENT IN-CHARGE, DC FIELD OFFICE U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Thank you, Ma'am. Michael, first, I'd like to say I went to college and grad school in the city, 66 percent of our agency works in the city. There isn't a man or woman in the Secret Service, who is not keenly aware of just how much of an impact our security measures have.

And please believe me when I say we do everything we can to mitigate and lessen the necessary security measures to safeguard an event like this. For everyone inside what we call the green line or the red line, the outer secure perimeter, we have divided that up into 12 zones. We have an agent who over the last seven months has been reaching out to all the property managers, all the businesses, and all the federal buildings, office buildings, et cetera, to coordinate what people will need to get in and out on foot or when parking garages will be closed down and when they'll need to walk out in order to get transportation from there.

My first recommendation, if there's any confusion, would be to talk to the property manager, the front office staff to find out what they were told. And if there is still further confusion, to make sure they find who that secret service agent is and again, the building, the security, the management will know who that individual is to find out if there are special accommodations, which needs to be made.

[12:35:14]

We also have the ability to do that. We've worked very, very closely with the U.S. Attorney's offices, the courts, law enforcement who are working these criminal investigations, pursuant to last week, to make sure they can go on without interruption.

We've had to do that with other businesses as well. But we have been engaging in outreach with all of our partners, both residential, commercial, and governmental to make sure that they can access their residences, their businesses, or their places of work. BRICE-SADDLER: A follow up. To that -- what, I'm sorry, a quick follow up to that, where will media be permitted on the day of the inauguration?

MILLER: That I would have to defer to the Communications Subcommittee. They've been coordinating with all the various media partners and outlets to make sure that they are credentialed and that they have access. I don't know specifically right now, but we can get that answered back to you.

BRICE-SADDLER: OK. Thank you.

MILLER: Yes.

JANE RECKER, ASSISTANT EDITOR, WASHINGTONIAN: Hi, Jane Recker, Washingtonian. Last time we saw some trouble with hotels where they were overrun by people without masks, who are potentially violent, they didn't know how to handle it. I know that Airbnb has promised that it's not going to be renting out properties during the coming weeks. What guidance have you given to hotels or hotels going to be shutting down? And if not, what kind of support are you going to be offering them to help them manage whoever might be coming in?

BOWSER: So I think we addressed this question earlier in the week. And I think it should be pretty clear that we have some housing needs still in the city. So we have not, we have not ordered hotels to shut down in the central business district or in the district.

However, we do know that they know their business operations the best. And they may make a decision not to offer services for public safety reasons or other reasons during this period of time. We have been in close contact with the hotel associations and various property managers and we will continue to do that. And they can continue to call on MPD for other help.

RECKER: And then my next question is with so much being blocked off downtown, so much enforcement there. I think people are thinking, OK, if these people can't get downtown, where do they go next? What is the threat level? How concerned should people be who live in neighborhoods near the downtown area or who live in historically black neighborhoods across the city?

BOWSER: Let me first ask the United States Secret Service to talk in general about how they're preparing for security and MPD and HCMA to add to that.

MILLER: Thank you, Mayor. As far as the current threat situation, I don't think anybody is unaware of Director Wray's testimony or the FBI's releases on the proliferation of, for lack of a better term, chatter around the country. All 50-state FBI JTTF's in the four territories are working 24 hours a day to pursue every lead, every credible threat and run that to ground. It is truly a whole of government approach.

As far as specifics for security for this inauguration, we do recognize that because we have such a robust and hardened perimeter we have so many assets inside the Penn quarter Capitol area, that there is the potential for people to go elsewhere, whether it's back to their state Capitols, or to other parts of the city. MPD serves this city exceptionally well.

We have had very candid conversations about we can't create a fortress and allow the rest of the city to suffer in services, whether it's Fire EMS or public safety. There is a very, very good plan led by Chief Contee, Assistant Chief Carroll, Commander Glover, the city should not be concerned that they will not, that they will be let down by MPDC.

There is also a plan with the bureau, with the National Guard Bureau and with all the representatives here in the city, that should there be intelligence directing threats to other state Capitols, they can respond in a timely and appropriate fashion. Does that answer your question?

RECKER: I believe so. Thank you.

SAM FORD, DC BUREAU CHIEF, ABC7 NEWS: I'm Sam Ford with Channel 7. I had a question for Director Reinbold, talking about the protests that will be allowed. I'd like just to know more about this in this case. You said there were two protests or two locations. I'm not quite clear on that. And then people will be checked to go. Could you tell us a little more about that?

[12:40:22]

JEFF REINBOLD, SUPIRENTENDENT, NATL. MALL AND MEMORIAL PARKS, NATL. PARK SERVICE: Sure. We had two requests for First Amendment activities. And so we had numerous requests, including from the city to cancel all permitted activities within the park. And I'm happy to say that most of the people that had special events, whether they be weddings or celebrations, on MLK Day worked with us to find different locations, different places.

The two first amendment permits that we received the requests, we were able to work with them, identify a size of the group that the Park Police were able to look at specific locations and figure out how many they thought could fit in those areas and meet COVID requirements and still safety requirements. We've done this in the past before we will have escorted folks in often at inaugurations.

And so this would be an opportunity where those groups can come, those folks can come. There'll be screen through magnetometers, there'll be with U.S. Park Police the entire time to their locations, and then they'll have the ability to express their First Amendment, their First Amendment rights.

FORD: What are the locations and who are the groups?

REINBOLD: I don't have the groups off the top of my head but the locations are at the Navy Memorial and then also at John Marshall Park.

MARK SEGRAVES, NBC4 WASHINGTON: Thank you. Mark Segraves, NBC Washington. For the Mayor and for the Secret Service, first for the Mayor or MPD, what can you tell us about the use of curfews, car searches, roadblocks, bridge closures? We already saw one bridge today closed at least temporarily. What is it -- what's being planned as far as that that you can give us any kind of indication what we might see in the coming days?

BOWSER: Sure. So Mark, we put up on our first slide and we can go back to it the road closures that are in place as of this morning. I will ask residents to stay alerted by signing up for one of our alerts because that's subject to change. I am aware that the United States Secret Service is considering some other closures inbound to Washington and I think they will announce those when those decisions have been made. As it relates to a curfew, we will continue as we do with every event to evaluate the use of a curfew as a tool.

SEGRAVES: Possibility of people's cars being searched when they either come into Washington D.C. or come into any of the areas near the perimeter.

BOWSER: Let me ask the Secret Service Agent Miller and Chief Contee.

MILLER: Thank you, Mayor. To amplify the Mayor's response on the closures, as you saw on the graphic there, there are written street closures published across all of the various law enforcement and public safety partners. So whether it's the Secret Service's social media sites, the District of Columbia, the Metropolitan Police Departments. We are working on publishing a graphic as we typically do.

I would just caution everyone that we are currently on I think version 11 given all the changes dictated by the events of the 6th. And there are still negotiations as the Mayor indicated with Richmond as to when the bridges across the rivers will be closed, when they will be reopened, which specific bridges those will be. As far as your question about cars and other traffic so trucks making deliveries to hotels or businesses.

Any vehicle once the secure perimeter is in place that enters one of the designated checkpoints will be searched for explosives, weapons, and other prohibited items. So there will be a joint team from the Metropolitan Police Department, the Secret Services Technical Security Division, and depending on resource constraints, Department of Defense or National Guard, Explosive Ordnance Specialists, we are looking for weapons threats or explosives. Outside of that, the vehicle is safe to enter once it's been cleared and swept and has a legitimate purpose inside the zone.

SEGRAVES: What about an outside the zone? Can people expect those type of searches outside just entering the city? And then can I also ask you about use of force? I know the National Guard is not here. But can you tell us when use of force would be acceptable by any of these National Guard troops who we see who are now armed?

MILLER: OK. That's a two part question.

[12:45:01] SEGRAVES: Thank you.

MILLER: So in part one, outside of the secure zone, vehicles, resident, guests, will be able to enter and transit the district as normal, to only when you are attempting to enter what we call the green line or the red line. The green line is essentially the soft perimeter leading up to the red line where there are absolute searches coming in. So outside of that vehicles and deliveries will continue as normal.

Your second question as far as the rules of engagement, the National Guard Bureau was publishing rules of engagement and printing rules of engagement cards for each of its soldiers deployed on this exercise. My understanding is that those rules of engagement or the use of force policy would comply with the agency to which they were assigned.

So I know, for instance, that there is a detail of National Guard Bureau personnel up at the United States Capitol. They are complying with and will comport with the United States Capitol police's use of force model. Most of the use of force models throughout the federal and local law enforcement community are very, very similar. There's not much daylight between them. There are some specific exceptions.

But you can probably find those through the U.S. Capitol Police or the National Guard Bureau, unless Chief Contee, do you know the specifics for your personnel?

CONTEE: Yes. Hi Mark. With respect to the U.S. -- with respect to the National Guard, specifically, as Matt mentioned, those policies are pretty much follow the same framework as the host agency, you know, obviously in defense of one's life or another. I think with the specifically with the D.C. National Guard for MPDs traffic post, those persons that are deployed, their primary mission is to focus on traffic, traffic management. And that's a different mission from what's going on at the U.S. Capitol Police. So I think that's a distinction to make there.

The other thing to respect to your question about the vehicles being searched outside of the perimeter, if we have information and as you know, from the previous demonstrations that we've had here in our city, we have had armed individuals to come into our city, and there were firearms recovered in some instances. There were explosives recovered, in another instance, Molotov cocktails from a vehicle.

So if there's a need, obviously within the framework of the Constitution to stop a vehicle for some type of check for weapons or something like that, we certainly will be deploying that, that measure as well.

JAMES WRIGHT, THE WASHINGTON INFORMER NEWSPAPER: Good afternoon. I'm James Wright with The Washington Informer Newspaper. I have a question for Acting Chief Contee and Mr. Wiedefeld?

BOWSER: Yes, Chief. Go ahead James.

WRIGHT: OK. Chief Contee, we want to make sure that we have this right. MPD, for lack of a better term, all hands on deck, MPD will be all hands on deck for the inauguration zone but what about the rest of the city? Will the rest of the city be covered? And will they be covered competently even though you have many officers in the inauguration zone?

CONTEE: Thank you for the question. It's a great question. And I'll answer that very specifically. It's not just all hands on deck for the zone. It's a all hands on deck for our entire agency, because our entire agency has responsibility for the entire city.

With that being said, the influx of federal resources that you see into our city certainly allows for MPD to be agile, to be very nimble in terms of our response posture to any threats that could, that may occur in any of our communities. We will have assets pre-station throughout different communities ready to respond. And a contingency of our federal support if need be to respond to any threats that that may present themselves.

WRIGHT: No, no, no, this one is for Mr. Wiedefeld.

BOWSER: OK.

WRIGHT: Mr. Wiedefeld, many people in the community on social media when they saw this plan of closing so many stations, they were very alarmed. Not so much that they're closing it within the inauguration zone. But the fact is, is that many people traveled through that area to get to their jobs and obligations. And many of those people are low income and working class people and they can't afford to telework in terms of getting to their jobs. When this plan came through, did that come to you as a consideration?

[12:50:05]

PAUL J. WIEDEFELD, GEN. MGR. & CEO, WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA TRANSIT AUTHORITY: Of course, it did. That was one of our largest concerns was how do we continue to serve our customer base, we argued for in effect to be able to run the trains through the zone so that people get to the other side without having to basically get off the train and get another means to get there. So that was a huge concern of ours. But as I said earlier, it is something that we don't welcome, but it's something that we all need to do to keep everyone safe.

CLARE HYMES, CBS NEWS: Hi, thank you. Clare Hymes, CBS News. My first question is, is there any indication that extremist groups like the Proud Boys or the Boogaloos are planning on attending the inauguration next week or showing up?

BOWSER: Special Agent?

MILLER: Thanks Mayor. I would defer a specific answer to the FBI. I know that they are actively investigating and talking with a number of extremist groups searching the internet, social media for any indication they can get. And they are very, very careful to delineate between credible, specific, direct intelligence, and information. So I'm not entirely certain and I'm not entirely competent to answer that question. It is better addressed to the FBI. But as Director Wray has mentioned, there's a great deal of very concerning chatter. And it's what you don't know that we are preparing for. So I don't know if anyone has raised their hand to say we are coming. We will be there. But we are preparing as if they are.

BOWSER: Let me just add that our team, led by Director Rodriguez and MPD are having a daily download with the FBI to follow up on special agents comment.

HYMES: Thank you. Just my second question, people say the city kind of looks like a military takeover. There's armed troops, roadblocks, even just around the corner from where we are right now. What message, Mayor, are you sending?

BOWSER: I want to be very clear about this. As a person born and raised in this city, I have spent many days. I have spent a lot of time in and around a national monument to core, at these iconic structures, at the Capitol Building, where there was an attempted coup. These things are so important not just to America, but to the 712,000 people who call D.C. home.

We traverse these roads and parks each and every day. The National Park is a park. And it is used not just for First Amendment demonstration but for people to walk around the park to get exercise, to play games, you name it. So we are -- we don't take any of the measures that we have taken lightly.

Let me say something about your comment about a takeover. I have to remind D.C. residents that I asked the federal government to devise a deployment plan that will protect federal assets in the District of Columbia. And that is what has been done under the leadership of the United States Secret Service in the various agencies that have been mentioned.

That is important, as you heard Chief Contee say because our officers can also focus on keeping D.C. safe from any aspects of crime, including from these extremist groups that have attacked our Capitol.

STEPHANIE RAMIREZ, FOX 5 DC: Hi, Mayor, everyone up here, thank you. Stephanie Ramirez with Fox 5 DC. Question for you is specifically to this weekend, Saturday and Sunday. Is there any more information regarding what is expected? And when it comes to the permitted events, what happens if more than 100 people show? And what happens if people start to gather in places that are outside of the perimeter that has been established?

BOWSER: OK. Let me first and thank you for asking that question, Stephanie. Because part of my reasoning and requesting that this NSSE, this National Special Security Event be advanced the timeline for it be advanced is because the inauguration is not the only target or activity that's out there being discussed.

There are other events that lead up to that. And we thought it was very important that the proven and effective framework that the U.S. Secret Service sets up for this national security events would also be helpful in the lead up to the inauguration. When I asked Chief Contee to talk about those threats, and perhaps, Park Service or Park Police talk about the First Amendment events.

[12:55:28]

CONTEE: Yes. So you know, when these threats come in, as I think agent Miller mentioned, you know, there's a lot of chatter that's out there, obviously, on the internet, we have a daily download with the FBI. We briefed the Mayor daily, just on the information that's out there. And I can assure the residents of the District of Columbia that the Metropolitan Police Department and our federal partners are in a posture to respond to the information that's out there, that's far that we've heard. And I think that's been -- it's been, you know, it's been on all the news channels. We're hearing it. So we're certainly in a posture to respond.

BOWSER: Park Service, anything?

REINBOLD: Thank you, Mayor. Yes, in terms of this weekend, you will start to see now that the fencing has gone up, as the Secret Service starts to activate some of those perimeters, we will fully support that access, it will become more and more restricted within the National Mall and within the areas that we have inside those boundaries.

We have worked with everyone, all of the permittees that had requested either special events or demonstrations from now through the inauguration to find another time, find another location for their activity. For those two events that we have, they are groups that are very, my understanding is groups that are in D.C. quite a bit, have expressed first amendment activities quite frequently throughout the district.

And we've had a chance to talk to them and be able to make sure that they're able to scale their First Amendment demonstrations to the size that we have available. So we also thank them for working with us on this.

RAMIREZ: And Mayor Bowser, do you anticipate the area being able to go back to normal immediately after the NSSE period has ended or expected to ended?

BOWSER: I think that we're going to go back to a new normal, Stephanie. And I think that our entire country has to deal with how our intelligence apparatus, security apparatus at every level, deal with a very real and present threat to our nation.

We saw white extremists stormed the Capitol Building, who were trained and organized and seemingly with the intent to capture the Vice President of the United States and perhaps harm other lawmakers. So we all have to think about a new posture, we certainly have to think about a new posture in the city. So while we are focused on January the 20th, we're also focused on January the 21st, and every day thereafter, in the Nation's Capitol.

KENNETH MOTON, ABC NEWS: Mayor? BOWSER: Yes?

MOTON: Hi, thank you and to everyone on the stage. This is Kenneth Moton with ABC News. I just want to follow up on that last question because I wanted to drill down on that. Is that do you expect many of the security measures we see now to last well, after the President- elect takes office to continue to provide that protection and helping the Secret Service provide that protection to President Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris?

BOWSER: We do not expect to have visiting National Guard throughout the city for weeks to come? No. We don't expect that. But I do think that we have to replace that sense of security in other ways. So we certainly from the district's perspective, we'll be thinking about that.

We're actually also thinking about how our partnership with the federal government has to change so that we can have that increased sense of security. I won't bore you with the kind of the details of how we're budgeted to support our special security because we're the Nation's Capitol. But those issues have to be dealt with. We also have to be dealt with the complicating factor of not being a state in that. The Mayor of the District of Columbia does not command the D.C. National Guard. We know that that's a complicating factor.

So there are many things that we as a city will have to reset in terms of our posture in policing in an all of our homeland agencies that support First Amendment demonstrations. What will that reset look like?

[13:00:05]