Police Brace for Day of Pomp and Tight Security

Police Agencies Strive to Assure Security In a Crowded City on Inauguration Day

Don't plan on buying hot chocolate along the inaugural parade route to keep warm. For the first time since vendors got a piece of the presidential inauguration, they are prohibited from selling hot chocolate -- or hot dogs or any other hot food -- so close to the action because their propane tanks pose a security risk.

Do plan on passing through a metal detector if you have bleacher seats in certain blocks on the parade route or will be in the crowd on the Capitol grounds for the swearing-in ceremony.

Hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes Secret Service agents, anti-terrorism specialists and bomb-detecting dogs will mingle with spectators. On rooftops along the route, counter-snipers from three agencies will be posted. Helicopters will fly overhead, and police robots will be available to handle suspicious packages that might contain explosives.

Security is always tight on Inauguration Day, but it will be tighter than ever this year, according to law enforcement officials. Since the last inauguration, security concerns have been heightened because of the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, the bombing at the Summer Olympics in Atlanta and a recent spate of letter bombs delivered to the Washington, New York and London news bureaus of a Saudi newspaper.

In May 1995, the month after the Oklahoma City bombing, Pennsylvania Avenue was closed to traffic in front of the White House for security reasons.

More than 6,000 officers from the D.C. police, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Park Police, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Federal Protective Service, the Montgomery County police, the Maryland State Police and the Alexandria police will be posted along the parade route or at other inaugural events. Prince George's County police will provide security at the Presidential Gala at USAir Arena.

"We're putting every available resource we can out there, considering everything that's occurred in the last several years," D.C. Police Chief Larry D. Soulsby told his top officers at a security meeting yesterday. "We're very concerned. Anything could happen. We must be very, very diligent."

From inspecting miles of underground Metro and sewer tunnels to surveying the 450 downtown buildings with at least a partial view of the parade route, law enforcement agencies have been preparing for the inauguration for months. Logistics are complicated by the many inaugural activities apart from the parade and by weekend antiabortion protests planned ahead of next Wednesday's Right to Life March.

The preparations include sealing manhole covers, closing streets and ensuring that fireworks are transported safely and guarding them round-the-clock for three days. Security officials have compiled a thick book of information about the parties that will be held in each building along the parade route, and the Secret Service has rehearsed transporting the president to a hospital in an emergency.

Every D.C. police officer involved in the inauguration -- and there are about 3,000 -- was required to watch a video advising officers how to conduct themselves in the crowd. About 800,000 spectators came downtown for Clinton's first inauguration, according to police.

The video explained where the officers should stand to secure the parade route: 15 feet apart, two feet from the curb. Any officer above the rank of sergeant is allowed to face the parade. Sergeants face the crowd behind their troops. Officers also were told what to wear to "look sharp" and stay warm in the frigid temperatures anticipated that day, and they were urged to be patient and pleasant: "It takes a lot less effort to smile than to frown."

But the emphasis was on protecting the president. "Be alert," the narrator says. "Constantly observe spectators for suspicious activity. Once you allow your attention to withdraw from the crowd, you've lost control." To drive the point home, the video shows clips of the shooting of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 at the Washington Hilton Hotel.

Officials say Clinton plans to walk part of the parade route, as he did the first time.

"There is no greater security issue than the president of the United States," said Inspector Rodney D. Monroe, who is coordinating security for D.C. police. "He's the man."

At D.C. police headquarters yesterday, Monroe briefed about 60 top officials about where they should be and what they should do on Inauguration Day. For three hours, he went over a wide range of concerns -- credentials and vehicle passes, first-aid stations, the issuing of winter hats and the importance of being courteous to thousands of spectators.

"We're in the eyes of the nation and the world," Monroe said.

U.S. Park Police, with three dozen horses, will be in charge of the Pennsylvania Avenue sidewalks and the Mall, site of many weekend activities and the staging area for the parade.

The U.S. Capitol Police are responsible for the Capitol and its grounds. The Federal Protective Service is responsible for all federal buildings along the parade route. More than 100 National Guard troops from the D.C. Armory will help D.C. police with traffic control downtown and with patrolling other parts of the city. The Secret Service is in charge of protecting the president.

"There is a massive amount of security and security personnel to coordinate," said former police chief Isaac Fulwood Jr., who oversaw security for President George Bush's inauguration.

"With all of the dignitaries -- the president and vice president, the speaker of the House, the secretary of state, the Supreme Court justices, the diplomats -- basically at the same location at the same time, someone could literally wipe out all the leadership," he said.

For that reason, among others, officials are not allowing vendors to sell hot food from Third to 17th streets NW and from Constitution Avenue to E Street NW.

"There will be no propane stoves, no gas-fired generators, no Sterno and no flammables in the area," said Maurice Evans, program specialist for vending and special events for the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. "And because District regulations require that all hot food must be kept at a certain temperature, that means there will be not be hot food or beverages in that area."

Spectators will be able to buy hot food from vendors on Independence Avenue or Constitution Avenue from Third to 14th streets NW.

The police are asking spectators not to bring packages, placards, coolers or thermos bottles into secured areas of the Capitol grounds. "It slows down the screening," said Sgt. Dan Nichols, of the U.S. Capitol Police. "Every package will be examined."

Stephen T. Colo, of the Secret Service, said that this is the first year the Secret Service has set up an office downtown to monitor the president's movements during inaugural activities. The office is filled with computers and large screens on which live video images from Park Police helicopters will be projected.

"It's overwhelming, the planning they have to do," said Ann Dibble Jordan, co-chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, as she toured the cavernous Secret Service office yesterday afternoon. "People have no idea how many people work together to make this happen.

"And their reward is to have nothing happen," she said.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.