On January 20, 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the president of the United States of America in front of more than 700,000 attendees, including celebrities and important political figures such as former presidents and first ladies Barack Obama and wife Michelle Obama, George W. Bush and wife Laura Bush, Bill Clinton and wife Hilary Clinton and Jimmy Carter and wife, Rosalynn Carter.
This got me wondering, what goes on with security behind such high-profile events? With such large crowds at the inauguration ceremony, could security really be watching everyone and everything?
Around 28,000 personnel from dozens of agencies and departments were used during the Presidential Inauguration 2017, including the Secret Service, FBI, Park Police, Coast Guard and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Security operations were months in the planning
Pierre Thomas, Geneva Sands and Jack Cloherty of ABC News reported that the “Secret Service trained for nearly every contingency”, including how they would handle a drone spraying weaponised gas on the president and crowd, a suicide vehicle attack and administering first aid if the president was attacked. Customs and Border Protection, who contributed to air support for the inauguration ceremony, did test runs around Washington, D.C., one week prior to the inauguration to ensure communication systems were functioning properly. The Metropolitan Police Department sent personnel to Democratic and Republican national conventions in 2016 to study the security procedures there to prepare for Inauguration Day.
On Inauguration Day, law enforcement used different means of security to keep attendees safe. While physical barriers, checkpoints, bag searches and patrolling officers were visible means of security, officers in plain clothes, radiation detection and surveillance cameras were also used to monitor the event. Other precautions that were taken included closing down major roads, tunnels and bridges leading to the Capitol Building and downtown Washington D.C., helicopters scanning the city in search of possible threats and Coast Guard cutters to patrol the Potomac River.
It is reported that there were no known credible threats to the inaugural ceremony, so what was law enforcement looking for? In a statement given by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson prior to the inauguration ceremony, he talked about the threat of homegrown violent extremism, acts of so-called lone wolves and people who had self-radicalised. Events like the Berlin attack in 2016.
Johnson also mentioned airborne threats were a concern and that airspace above Washington would be off-limits to drone flights as well as most other air traffic during the inaugural events.
Law enforcement hasn’t gone into great detail about their security efforts put forth to protect the 700,000 attendees of the 2017 inauguration for security reasons. However, it is clear from statements made by officials like Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and others that law enforcement covered all of their bases, doing everything in their power to keep the public safe on January 20th, 2017, and keeping everyone safe is exactly what they did.
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