Responding to Threats: A Field Personnel Manual (2004)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

55 Where to Look Section 3 presented a list of potential targets and Section 4 gave examples of the types of information a terrorist/criminal must collect on the target. Much of this infor- mation collection requires that the terrorist physically visit the target. Video cameras, binoculars, the Internet, and other technical tools may be useful, but there is no substi- tute for being “up close and personal” to get the needed data. Attackers are putting their life on the line based on the information they collect. They have to be absolutely cer- tain that their reconnaissance is complete in every detail. Around every potential target, there is at least one area and possibly more where the would-be-attacker has to physically get the information he/she needs. This area is called an “Area of Concentration” or a “Red Zone.” Red Zones include ideal places for observing the target, such as a restaurant or library window across from a target, a park bench, a bus stop, or a fishing spot. You can identify Red Zones by considering the potential targets in your area and asking yourself “Where would I have to be to collect the information listed in Section 4?” Red Zones are the areas where you want to focus your observation skills. You need to know the following: • Who are the people that are almost constantly in the Red Zone? • Who are the people that periodically pass though the Red Zone? • What activities normally occur there? • What unusual activities might periodically occur there? • How are emergencies or unforeseen events normally handled there? In short, you need to mentally “own” the Red Zones to the extent that no new folks can enter the Red Zone without it being very obvious to you and your coworkers. By comparing the activities of the new folks against the normal area activity, it will be easy to recognize those who don’t have a valid reason to be there. Figure 1 shows an example of a department of transportation (DOT) facility and its surrounding Red Zones. Local Red Zones should be identified and listed by your security personnel. Recog- nizing the security sensitivity of listing specific Red Zones in a “Field Manual,” employees should contact the appropriate security personnel to learn about their key local red zones. For information on specific, local Red Zones, contact:

6Figure 1. Example Red Zones around a transit facility. Refueling ANY DOT FACILITY (Potential Target) Admin. Maintenance Employee Parking gate gate Fast food Apart- ments.Day Care. RED ZONE RED ZONE (when others are present) Mini mart Strip Mall Truck stop Woods Public Park RED ZONE Bank gate