Rachel Raskin-Zrihen ran an article on 09/10/2009 that discussed truck driving schools on the west coast that are delivering some training related to the new Federal Anti-Terrorism Program. The program is called the “First Observer Program.”
The “First Observer Program” is designed to have truck driving professionals act as look outs on americas roads. The training givien at the school teaches the truck drivers what to look for out on the road.
Here is the complete article from the Times-Herald:
Truckers learn to watch out for terroristsBy Rachel Raskin-ZrihenPosted: 09/10/2009 03:00:14 AM PDTTim Seymour of Falcon Truck School in Vallejo discusses students’ training in recognizing terror threats on the roadways. (Mike Jory/Times-Herald)A local truck driving school became the first on the West Coast to be trained for a new federal anti-terrorism program, the school’s owner and the instructor said.Robert Hertan, an instructor from Maryland-based Total Security Services International, Inc., led the three-hour class at Vallejo’s Falcon Truck School recently. He said the federal Transportation Security Administration hired his firm to train transportation professionals for the “First Observer” program.”This is a Department of Homeland Security program, funded by FEMA and administered by the TSA,” Hertan said.The heart of the training is to use truckers to keep an eye out for — and report — suspicious behavior that could be part of a terrorist operation or some other attack like that on the state capitol eight years ago.Timing and convenience combined to make Falcon the first school to get this training, but it’s spreading nationwide, Hertan said. Some trucking and school bus firms have been trained, and though specific results are unavailable, it’s working, he said.”We wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t providing some value,” Hertan said.”The TSA clearly recognizes the vital role America’s critical infrastructure plays in maintaining and preserving our American way of life and has made protecting that infrastructure a top priority,” according to the program’s literature.”First Observer engages surface transportation professionals — truck drivers, school bus operators, mass transit workers, port
workers and others — in maintaining the safety and security of
America’s bridges, tunnels and roads.”The average truck
spends 100,000 miles on the highway a year — 10 times more than an
average car, Falcon instructor Mike Meagher said. So recruiting
truckers as extra eyes and ears on the highway makes sense, he said.Falcon owner Tim Seymour, a former Fairfield resident now living in Palm Springs, summed it up.
“The idea is to train truckers to be able to identify suspicious activity, to assess what they observe and report it,” he said.
Hertan
told the Falcon instructors that a First Observer-type program might
have made a difference in the 2004 Madrid commuter train bombings,
Seymour said.“Someone actually saw someone leave a
backpack on a train, but no one reported it, and we all know what
happened there,” he said.(More than 191 people were
killed and 1,800 others injured in Madrid on March 11, 2004, when
terrorists set off a coordinated series of bombs on commuter trains.)Transportation
professionals are given a special phone number to report suspicious
activity, said Seymour, whose parents founded Falcon in 1982. Seymour
said he and his wife Suzanne took over the operation in 2002.“We were told not to try confronting anyone. Just if you see something a little bit off, call,” he said.
Calls go to a special center, where trained operators assess it and route it to the appropriate authorities, Hertan said.
Hertan told the Falcon instructors there is no such thing as a stupid call, the men said.
An
example of something a trucker would recognize as “a little off,” that
the average motorist might not, would be the truck that in January,
2001, was intentionally driven into the state capitol in Sacramento,
Falcon instructor Robert Richardson said.“That truck was
too long, too big to be there, it was illegal to be there,” said
Richardson, a former CHP officer now living in Red Bluff. “If I’d seen
it, I would have known there was something wrong, and I would have
called 911.”Certain graffiti can be a terrorist message,
the men were told. People hanging around where they don’t seem to
belong, a gas tanker parked on the Bay Bridge or downtown — anything a
trucker might recognize as unusual or out of place, should prompt a
call, the truckers learned.“Even if one call doesn’t
amount to anything, if they put together enough seemingly random
information, they could discover evidence of a terror cell operating,”
said Meagher, a Cordelia resident. “I also tell my students to watch
out for their own equipment, to be observant. You can unwittingly
become the carrier of explosives that can do damage.”Among
the most shocking things the men said they learned was “what five
pounds of C-4 can do to a Greyhound bus,” Richardson said.
“Disintegrates it completely. They showed that on a video.”Falcon’s
instructors said they never expected to be on the front lines of the
nation’s war on terror. “But truckers tend to be pretty patriotic,
always have been,” Meagher said. “We’re more than willing to do this.
The threat exists and we all have to pay attention if we want to keep
our nation safe.”First Observers is an extension of
“Highway Watchers,” a similar program launched shortly after the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he said.Seymour said
he will be developing a First Observer-based curriculum element over
the next several weeks, and include it in Falcon students’ regular
coursework starting in October.
Truckers learn to watch out for terrorists – Vallejo Times Herald
