Scenario
The DRNC is a five-day event that takes over a year to plan for. The epicenter of the convention is
located at the American Airlines Arena (also known as the “Triple A”) in Downtown Miami. A buffer zone
has been erected around the arena, as well as the entire Bayside and Bayfront Park areas, and the
Intercontinental Hotel. The area inside the buffer zone is considered as the “security zone” and is where
the delegates who attend the convention will have free access. The security zone extends to the waters
of Biscayne Bay, and includes the entire Port of Miami.
Entry into the secure zone is strictly monitored at four locations along the buffer zone perimeter. Only
persons with the proper credentials are allowed into the security zone. Two of the four entry/exit gates are
located at the AAA, and the west gate into the Intercontinental Hotel grounds. The other two access
points into the secure zone are from the dockyard at the east side of the AAA, and the pier at the east
side of the Intercontinental Hotel. These two access points are for pre-screened ferry boats that help to
shuttle the delegates from the hotel to the AAA arena. All persons (including on-duty law enforcement
personnel) must be screened prior to entry into the security zone. The screening involves a multi-stop
queue whereby all vehicles and persons entering the security zone are subjected to an X-ray examination
(VACIS machine for vehicles), magnetometers, explosive detection K-9s, and a physical pat down
search. In addition, SWAT team counter-snipers are placed at high locations at various places in order to
prevent any terrorist bombers (and their vehicles) from getting access into the security zone. This
screening process is one of the strictest and most elaborate in the world, yet it is not completely infallible.
There have been several accounts of people getting past the security gates, into the security zone during
previous Super Bowls and political conventions. So far, the intruders have been non-terrorists.
One week prior to the start of the DRNC in early August, a team of 40 K-9 officers and their dogs swept
every inch of the AAA and its surrounding property. These K-9 officers came from all parts of Florida, as
well as a few federal agencies from Washington, D.C. Immediately after sweeping certain areas in and
around the AAA, security guards were posted on a 24-hour basis to make sure that no explosive devices
would be placed after the sweep. Once the K-9 team’s commander felt comfortable that the areas had
been secured, a guard would be posted and then the K-9s would go onto somewhere else to sweep
another critical area (such as the Intercontinental Hotel).
The police were not the only ones who were getting ready the week prior to the start of the DRNC event.
It appears that some adversarial groups were getting ready as well. Five days before the DRNC, the
Bomb Management Center (located at the Broward County Emergency Operations Center) received a
barrage of suspicious device calls (i.e., bombs) at various locations in Miami-Dade County. The MiamiDade
Bomb Squad responded to seven different calls in which backpacks had been abandoned in the
Downtown Miami area (outside the exclusionary area). One of them turned out to be the belongings of a
homeless person who slept under the Metrorail station in Overtown. However, the other six turned out to
be elaborate hoax devices. All six of these devices were determined by the bomb techs to be inert, and
posed no danger of explosion. Nevertheless, the fact that so many hoax devices were turning up during
the week prior to the DRNC was somewhat troublesome.
That week, Tim Johnson the FBI Supervisory Special Agent, and lead worker of the Miami JTTF, called
an impromptu meeting at the South Florida Fusion Center, located in Broward County to discuss the
recent rash of hoax bomb calls. Also present at the meeting were Mary Straight (Fusion Center Chief
Analyst), Detective Mike Warner (MDPD and JTTF member), Detective Frank Gomez (City of Miami PD,
and JTTF member), Detective Josh Marcussen (Broward Sheriff’s Office, and JTTF member), and
Detective Fred White (Palm Beach SO, and JTTF member). Sergeant James Boyd of the Miami-Dade PD
Bomb Squad was also invited and asked to debrief the JTTF investigators regarding the hoax devices.
At the onset of the meeting, Tim Johnson asked Sergeant Boyd to describe the six hoax devices that
were found at various locations around Downtown. Sergeant Boyd reported that in his opinion, all six
hoax devices were very similar in composition, and were likely constructed by the same person. Next,
Mary Straight reported that in five of the six hoax bomb cases had been captured on video from the pole
cameras in the Downtown area.
Several months before the DRNC, pole video cameras were placed at almost every corner of Downtown
Miami. These high resolution cameras covered almost every conceivable angle in the Downtown area,
and could be zoomed in to get a fairly clear picture of individual peoples’ faces. It is fairly well known
within law enforcement and security realms that hired personnel cannot conceivably monitor every
possible angle that these cameras reached. However, some new software advances had made the task
of video surveillance much better in that the software was programed to sense when items had been left
behind by suspects. If after 10 seconds the item had not been recovered by a person, then the alarm at
the video monitoring station would sound, and the attention of the security monitor would be brought to
that screen. This was an excellent surveillance tool that had been first used at a large scale special event
during the 2007 Super Bowl in Miami.
Mary passed out printed handouts of close-up screen capture photos of the two subjects who had
dropped off the hoax devices in five out of the six cases. Mary stated, “we have run these two through our
facial recognition software, and compared them to all of our data banks, but we don’t have any matches
so far. All I can tell you so far is that these guys are white males, about 5’ 6” and both weighing about 140
pounds.”
“Geez…these two guys look almost like the two Boston Marathon bombers,” stated Johnson. They’re
dressed the same, and even their faces are similar. If I didn’t know better, I would say that those two had
been resurrected.”
“Well…they haven’t been resurrected, but it looks like these two guys have resurrected the idea,”
remarked Mary. “We don’t have any other leads on these two at the moment…and we don’t know if
they’re just Anarchist hoaxers who are doing this to spread our bomb squad resources thin, or whether
these guys are serious bombers. There’s no way to tell right now.”
Sergeant Boyd interrupted, “yeah…even though these were all hoax devices, let’s not discount the
possibility that these subjects are real bombers who are placing these hoax devices to see how we
respond to them. Every time that we go to a bomb call, we are always wary that someone is watching us
and our procedures.”
“Agreed,” said Johnson. “We need to have a couple of surveillance teams on the ground in case these
guys show up again. If we find them…we’ll tail them for a while and try to find out if they’re working alone,
or as part of a larger group. I already have Detective Phil Herrera’s surveillance team on standby in
Downtown Miami from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Tom Sullivan’s team from the Tampa JTTF is handling the
evening shift.”
Detective Mike Warner asked, “Tim…what are your thoughts of putting out a press release to the public
with these guys’ picture on it like they did up in Boston for the Marathon bombers?”
“Mike, we may have to that eventually, but I think it’s premature at this point. Even if a concerned citizen
who knows their identity reported them to us, we don’t have much in the way of criminal charges against
them.”
“That’s true, but at least we can nail them on State charges related to the building and possession of hoax
devices,” replied Warner.
“You make a good point Mike, but let’s try to find them with our surveillance teams first…and if we don’t
do it within the next two days, then we’ll release the information and pictures to the public and try that
route. If we do the press release now, these two guys will know that we’re looking for them, and they may
take off to who knows where. So far, none of the devices contained any explosives, so I don’t view this as
an imminent threat to the public.”
Warner responded, “OK…I see your point, and I agree with what you’re saying. However, if by Monday
morning we haven’t found these guys, then I think we need to alert the public.” Warner turned to Sergeant
Boyd and asked, “Jim, we’ll need your Bomb Squad on standby all weekend, in case we find these guys
and they lead us to their stash of bomb making materials.”
“No problem Mike. In fact, all six of my guys are already assigned to ad hoc J-HRT teams and their days
off have been cancelled until the DRNC is over,” replied Sergeant Boyd. With that, the meeting at the
South Florida Fusion Center concluded.
Five Days Later (Monday, the first day of the DRNC event)
It was early Monday morning…the first day of the DRNC event in Downtown Miami. Supervisory Special
Agent Tim Johnson called another meeting of the JTTF.
Johnson started the meeting, “alright…so far the surveillance teams or the cameras have not picked up
on the two subjects that we’ve been looking for. I think it’s time to release the subjects’ pictures to the
public and seek their assistance.”
Detective Warner interrupted, “Tim, I just got a text message from the Bomb Squad sergeant. He said that
his bomb squad got called out late Sunday night for five separate suspicious package calls at various
Metrorail stations. According to Jim Boyd, so far his teams have rendered safe three out of the five, and
this time no hoax devices…all of them turned out to be real bombs.”
Johnson stated, “it sounds like we have some real live bombers on our hand. Mary, do we have anything
on video this time?”
Analyst Mary Straight answered, “yes we do…as a matter of a fact, that’s how one of the calls for the
Bomb Squad came from. We have a video of the same two guys…wearing the same clothing as last
week…dropping off a backpack at the train level of the Overtown Metrorail station. Unfortunately, by the
time we got a hold of the surveillance team on the ground, the two guys disappeared and we have
nothing on their location or direction of travel.”
“Well I guess it’s time to release the information to the public,” said Johnson.
“Tim…I just got additional information from the Bomb Squad sergeant. He’s now telling me that two other
devices have detonated…one south in the Vizcaya Metrorail station, and another north of Downtown, in
the Earlington Heights Metrorail. Apparently, there have been many casualties…as many as 100 dead or
injured…it’s too early to say,” said Detective Warner.
“OK…I’m hearing the same thing from my sources,” stated Detective Frank Gomez (City of Miami PD).
“Over a hundred casualties…mostly Metrorail commuters…It looks like many of the injured at the Vizcaya
station are being transported to South Miami Hospital. The injured persons from the Earlington Heights
explosion are being transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s trauma unit.”
“OK…it sounds like we have at least five…maybe seven different crime scenes…not counting the two
hospitals,” stated Detective Warren. “I’ll get a hold of Major Susan Barker, who’s in charge of the joint
forensic teams that have assembled for the event. They’re going to have their hands full with so many
different crime scenes. I hope she has enough people on her teams.”
“Mary…can you please get a hold of our Joint Information Center (JIC) and give them the press release
that we put together last week?”
Mary Straight nodded in agreement, but then said, “are you sure you want to release this information right
now? You realize that the reporters are going to ask a lot of questions, and they are sure to ask why we
didn’t release the information last week, when we first had it.”
“Mary, I realize that we will come under a lot of scrutiny for not having released the pictures earlier…but
let me deal with that later. Right now we need to find these two guys as soon as possible.”
Assignment Instructions
For this assignment, you are to write a 1200- to 2000-word essay. Your essay must identify and assess
crime scene requirements as to special needs and support logistics, to include, but not limited to, the
needs and materials to establish proper search procedures and patterns, identify hazardous materials
and situations, and considerations specific to mass crime scenes. Consider how you would handle these
related multiple crime scenes as if you were in Major Susan Barker’s shoes.