Before dawn on Inauguration Day, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer put on his ceremonial blue uniform, several gold badges, a row of ribbons and polished black shoes. But as he dressed in the dark, his thoughts turned to what might be happening in another darkened bedroom in the city.
"Was a terrorist somewhere putting on his suicide belt?" Gainer thought. "Was he getting out his uniform? Was he putting on the clothes he would die in?"
Gainer relaxed only as the sun set, some 13 hours later, after no terrorist had slipped through the 13,000 police, federal agents and military troops gathered at a cost of tens of millions of dollars for the most secure inauguration in history.
The chief is back in his everyday uniform, but the threat remains. For all the months of preparation, Jan. 20 was the easy part in the war against terrorism. Law enforcement officials said they believe that the threat of a terrorist attack is greater on an ordinary day, when the eyes of the nation's homeland security apparatus are not focused on a single event or possible target.
But despite the enduring risk, much of the inaugural security is dismantled. High-tech command centers have been shut down; air, rail and boat restrictions are lifted. And the millions in extra security dollars -- much of it in the form of pay and overtime -- are gone and can never be recouped.
In a world where authorities say the shadowy threat of domestic terrorism is always present, some officials and homeland security analysts say the massive one-time expenditure of time and resources on a single event is unjustified without credible risk information, when so much remains to be done to secure Washington and the nation the other 364 days a year.
Homeland security officials said they had no choice. The extraordinary cost is a form of insurance against a calamity that, in the worst-case scenario, would be far more costly. The question of tradeoffs lingers as a bedeviling catch-22 for security planners. In addition, administration officials said there are residual benefits to the inaugural buildup -- the region's law enforcement officers learned to work together during a real, live event.
"It's easier to protect and defend a special event than to be on alert 364 days a year," said terrorism analyst Bruce Hoffman, director of Rand Corp.'s Washington office. "That's the trouble with the post-9/11 environment. You can't ignore the one or two special days a year. . . . [But] the bigger threat may be today . . . when we let down our guard and let out this collective sigh of relief."
Almost all of the $17.3 million in local inauguration costs went to operational, one-time expenses. More than half -- $9.2 million -- went to personnel, such as overtime, according to a D.C. government estimate. An additional $3 million covered transportation, lodging, food, water and per-diem expenses for 3,000 police officers recruited from 67 other agencies, and $3 million went to build and remove parade viewing stands.
"I don't think there's any residual benefit directly to the region or to the District of Columbia," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), a member of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security.
"In place of a finely honed sense of security -- which they do not know how to do yet, apparently -- they went with 'more security,' " Norton said. "And who paid that price, of course, were people of the District and the region."
The $17.3 million doesn't count what federal agencies spent for the inauguration.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said a federal cost estimate would be calculated, but as of Friday, his spokesman said no figure was available. Federal security expenses for major events in recent years have ranged as high as $310 million for the 17-day 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.
State and local security costs last year, by contrast, for briefer events, such as the political conventions in Boston and New York and the Sea Island, Ga., summit of world economic leaders, ranged from $20 million to $50 million. One federal security official doubted the federal inaugural cost would ever be released because it would be too controversial.
