Uncle Sam was still in shock 10 years ago today.
The buildings targeted by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were still smoldering, and the fear of another attack was strong.
Nonetheless, federal employees went back to work, knowing their workplaces could be next on the target list of those emboldened by the site of crumbling towers and a damaged Pentagon.
Even a decade later, wariness remains.
“I know 9/11 changed how federal employees handle themselves, because everyone, during the D.C. earthquake, first thought . . . ‘Is this an attack?’ ” said Neil Mihalich, a Navy Department employee.
Fear among federal workers was natural soon after the attacks. But that fear did not diminish their sense of mission. To the contrary, the terrorists’ perverted accomplishments that day have fueled a sense of duty and mission among federal employees and helped recruit others to their ranks.
“Nine-eleven was an attack in every way as powerful for this generation as Pearl Harbor was to our parents,” said John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management. “Just as then, after the initial shock and grief wore off, America’s patriotic spirit inspired many to step forward and serve their nation and attempt to either make our country safer or contribute their talents in a way that would make the future brighter. Federal civil service was one powerful outlet for that impulse to find creative release on an unmatchable scale. I don’t know how to quantify that impact, but it is real, and undeniably positive.”
But just as that impulse to serve is real, so are continued questions about workplace security.
Here’s one basic question: Are federal employees safer in their workplaces 10 years after 9/11?
“Shamefully, the answer is clearly no,” said David Wright, president of the American Federation of Government Employees local for Federal Protective Service officers.
Wright is particularly upset with the drop in the number of FPS officers, whose job is to protect federal facilities. On Sept. 11, 2001, FPS had 1,100 law enforcement officers, 200 more than today, according to Department of Homeland Security figures. During that same period, the number of private contract guards employed by FPS rose from approximately 5,000 to 13,500.
Repeated congressional hearings and Government Accountability Office reports have pointed to the lack of consistent training for the guards, among a broad range of FPS shortcomings.
Given his position, Wright, who is an FPS officer, can be expected to push a particular line. Yet his comments can’t be brushed aside, not with evidence like this:
“In the last two years, an IRS office in Austin was attacked by an airplane; gunmen attacked the Pentagon and a courthouse in Las Vegas, and bombs were left at a courthouse in Spokane and a federal building in Detroit,” Wright said. “Individuals parked and attempted to detonate truck bombs at a courthouse in Springfield, Ill., and an office building in Dallas where the regional EPA office is housed. In June, there was a plot to attack, with grenades and automatic weapons, a Seattle federal building which houses offices and a child-care center.”
When a DHS official was asked the basic question about workplace security, she demurred.
“It’s fair to say that a lot of attention has been paid to the issue of federal facilities security in the last 10 years,” said Sue Armstrong, a DHS deputy assistant secretary for infrastructure protection. Armstrong, who is on detail as a senior FPS, cited methods, procedures and standards the department uses to enhance building security, and added: “I think federal employees today are more involved in their security.”
She noted that 725,000 prohibited items were seized last year by FPS and the private guards. It’s much more difficult to get into federal buildings now, and employees carry ID cards with biometric indentifiers.
But again, the question: Are federal employees safer in their workplaces 10 years after 9/11?
“It is hard to say that the amount of money spent on physical security is really keeping us any safer,” said Bob O’Brien, an Office of Personnel Management staffer speaking for himself. “There is much waste, and these security methods could be much more efficient.”
Ryan Y. Kellett, a Washington Post interactivity producer, contributed to this column.
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