Security To Be Unprecedented For Presidential Inauguration
Thousands Of Protesters Expected At Ceremony
POSTED: 4:51 pm EST December 12, 2004
UPDATED: 6:06 pm EST December 12, 2004
WASHINGTON -- The first presidential inauguration since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is just 39 days away.
Security is always tight for the inauguration, but this year, it's being called unprecedented.
AP Image
The security effort is so massive that Washington's police department has issued a mutual-aid call for officers from around the country.
Rain may be delaying construction on the stage, but Assistant Chief James Rohan of the U.S. Capitol Police said plans for security are at full speed.
The Secret Service is coordinating the various law enforcement agencies, and the military is expected to play a much larger role.
Police and military personnel will be posted every few feet along the parade route, with undercover officers working the crowds.
Also out of sight will be sensors to detect biological, chemical or radiological material.
As the presidential motorcade makes it way along Pennsylvania Avenue, SWAT teams and sharpshooters will be poised on rooftops. There'll be scores of bomb-sniffing dogs, more barriers and more security checkpoints than in previous years.
Police are telling anyone planning to attend the ceremony not to bring big packages, backpacks, bottles, thermoses, or anything that will cause extra screening and possibly hold up lines.
Washington police are recruiting 2,700 officers from around the country to help out with both the inauguration and the thousands of protestors expected.
For the first time, every reporter and photographer covering the ceremony has to have a background check and be fingerprinted.
Anyone wanting to keep up with the inaugural planning can log onto Inaugural '05.
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