American Security Today September Digital Magazine September 2016 | Page 12

Volume 7

Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg of the Paramus police

Chief Kenneth Ehrenberg of the Paramus police
said that since the first World Trade Center attack
in 1993, and particularly after Sept. 11, 2001, law
enforcement agencies have been preparing for
rashes of attacks like this.
“We knew these were all possibilities,” said Ehrenberg, whose department patrols the Westfield
Garden State Plaza and Paramus Park malls. “We
weren’t caught by surprise. We knew it was a matter of time.”
Police work to “harden” so-called soft targets, such
as malls, churches and schools, to make them less
vulnerable to attack. For example, Ehrenberg said
concrete barriers, poles and even giant flowerpots
can be placed strategically outside buildings.
“They’re not there for aesthetics; they’re there to
block vehicles from going any further,” he said.
“Obviously the threat still exists and it will probably
exist in the near future,” he added.
In other ways, however, the attack in Nice hit the
reset button on what law enforcement and security
professionals can expect.

September 2016 Edition

Jennifer Hesterman, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and author of Soft Target Hardening: Protecting People From Attack

Jennifer Hesterman, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who now works as an independent contractor specializing in protecting soft targets, said the
truck attack in Nice brought to life a nightmare for
the security world, as the driver took something as
commonplace as a truck and turned it into a crude
weapon.
“It’s a low-tech, unsophisticated attack,” said Hesterman, who, like Reich, is a member of ASIS International, an organization for security professionals.

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