SECURITY PLANNING FOR THE 2004 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION CASE REPORT

MSFM- Organizational Behavior
January 6, 2014

Case Summary

In November 2002 the Democratic National Committee selected Boston, Massachusetts to host its July 2004 convention. Boston had beaten out other larger cities which included New York, Miami and Detroit to win the convention. The convention would nominate local politician John Kerry to run against President George W. Bush in the upcoming 2004 election. It was hoped that the event would bring an economic windfall to the city and also showcase the historical and fashionable attractions to the national and international media.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino had worked hard to bring the Democratic National Convention to Boston. The city had tried in 2000 to host the convention but lost out to Los Angeles. On its second try with the help of Senator Edward Kennedy and the state’s congressional delegation Boston was successful. Mayor Menino was very excited for Boston to be in the media spotlight for the four days in July that the convention would be held. It would give the city a chance to bask in the limelight and show its rich historical past and its vibrant present. The Mayor also added that he saw the convention as a challenge for Boston. We’d never had an event of this magnitude. Menino was confident the city would meet the challenge and fare better than others that had hosted political conventions in the past.

The city’s elation would soon be calmed by the reality of hosting the first major political event in the post 9/11 era. National political conventions always drew protesters whose aim was to disrupt the proceeding. Now add to that the possibility of a terrorist group keen on exploiting that opportunity to attack an important part of our democratic process. In this time of heighted risk the job of developing a security plan would be a daunting task.

At the time the Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney made a request to the Department of Homeland Security to designate the DNC convention a “National Special Security Event” (NSSE). This would allow the US Secret Service whose vast experience and expertise for security planning to become the lead agency. Having this designation would also make the FBI in charge of crisis response and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) responsible for consequence management. Although the Secret Service would be responsible for protecting the convention it was not involved in planning the event that would be left to the Host Committee.

In June 2003 Secret Service Special Agent Scott Sheafe arrived in Boston to take the role of “coordinator” of security for the DNC convention which was a year away. It became evident right away to Mr. Sheafe that there were major security issues with the city. Especially with the main venue the Fleet Center a sports and entertainment facility that would prove especially challenging. The Fleet Center was built over a major train and subway transportation center called North Station and was located just feet away from I-93 a major north-south highway that bisected the city. The challenges extended outward, at the time the Big Dig was going on right outside the Fleet Center and what was planned for one day might not be there the next. The site was jammed among a compacted downtown, located between two hospitals and close to Boston’s inner harbor and the Charles River. With Logan Airport located so close it would be next to impossible to secure the air space around the Fleet Center. To secure the Fleet Center, North Station and I-93 would have to be addressed, but in such a way as not to cripple the area.

Not only was the site of the convention problematic the sheer numbers of people involved was mind blowing. The large amount of Federal, State and Local government organizations and authorities that would take part in the decision making process for just one committee could involve up to 80 people and over 40 organizations. All tasked with the responsibility for creating highly detailed plans that would protect the Fleet Center and other venues from attack. These different organizations would have to come together and work with each other and push any “turf” battles aside.

Organizational Dynamics

The US Secret Service was the correct organization to head up the planning for the security of the DNC convention in Boston. Having gained vast experience protecting the President when he travels away from the White House, the Secret Service when planning security especially in a city whether it is domestic or foreign knows that it can’t do it alone. You have to rely on the local people and their knowledge of the area. The agency is very good at sending in advanced teams to build a coalition of partners to prepare for a presidential visit. Having this experience in building working relationships makes the agency perfect in managing the special needs of security planning and implementation for the DNC convention.

Having chosen Scott Sheafe to head up the coordinators job for the DNC in Boston, the agency chose well. His first duty was to introduce himself to the Boston Secret Service field office headed up by Steve Ricciardi and staffed with 50 agents. Mr. Sheafe came to the office not with the “I’m in charge attitude” but a “let’s work together” one. He was paired with a local agent and proceeded to get the lay of the land. While Mr. Sheafe was starting out with basically nothing he did have a procedure that was develop by Secret Service headquarters that was based on the core strategy of forming partnerships with other law enforcement, security and public safety agencies. The procedure called for establishment of an intergovernmental apparatus that brought together federal, state and local agencies to work cooperatively on security planning and resolving any issues that arose in the process. Mr. Sheafe created a steering committee encompassing the heads of eleven different agencies. These agencies all contained the players that were going to be involved and making the decisions. In addition 17 subcommittees were formed each tasked with areas of security planning such as venues, transportation, traffic, intelligence and counter-terrorism all chaired by a Secret Service agent and a member of the Boston PD. Mr. Sheafe was excellent at building partnerships. He went out and introduced himself to key officials whose cooperation would be crucial. Having so many law enforcement agencies working together can create some friction but Mr. Sheafe was able to overcome a lot of that. Especially between the FBI and the Secret Service the two big kids on the block. Mr. Sheafe’s good-will efforts paid off and there were never any issues between the two organizations. Because of the relative small size of the various organizations in Boston no one organization could over power the other so it was realized early on that they needed to work together. Without the leadership of Scott Sheafe and the procedures that were developed by the Secret Service it is hard to believe that the security plan and the cooperation between all the organizations would have been a success.

Perception and Attribution

First and foremost the horrors of the events of 9/11 were fresh in everyone’s mind and the reality that things might have been different if the various law enforcement agencies had a better working relationship with each other. With this in mind attitudes of the various agencies and organizations involved were that we need to cooperate to make this thing work. This was spelled out at the first meeting of the Steering Committee when Mr. Sheafe was done outlining his goals the US Attorney Michael Sullivan spoke up and said “We’re fully supportive and we’re going to do anything we can to make this work for you”. The perception by the local politicians despite their enthusiasm when they found out that they were chosen as the host city for the DNC convention was that the City of Boston presented an especially difficult set of challenges in terms of security for the event. These politicians probably did not understand what the various security measures would entail or how those measures would impact the city and region. With the Secret Service onboard and the reality of the security situation realized, all of the organizations involved took a “roll up your sleeves” attitude and let’s make this thing happen. Mr. Sheafe set the tone by telling the planners “tell us what you want to do, and we will work hard to make it safe. This is how the Secret Service works. Another very important perception is people have to feel that the venue and events will be safe if they don’t people won’t come. The leadership shown by the various organizations and the planning that took place for the security of everyone involved played a big part in people feeling safe and thus attending the venue.

Management System

The management system called for the creation of a “Board of Directors” called the steering committee that would put in place an apparatus that would bring together federal, state and local agencies into subcommittees and assigning them areas of the security plan were their expertise was most needed. These subcommittees developed detailed plans, from there these groups presented these plans back to the steering committee which would validate the subcommittee’s findings. The steering committee would try and resolve issues or differences within the subcommittee that might surface during a briefing. But overall the steering committee empowered the subcommittees to work out their own plans and to come up with solutions. This system created the culture of working together and negotiating with each other to solve any of the differences that might come to light.

Lessons Learned

It seems that the most important lesson learned is when different venues are in line for approval that the selection committees seek some type of security assessment for the different locations. In fact as part of a City’s bid to host an event such as this a security appraisal should be part of the proposal.

Some thought should be given to the amount of organizations that are involved and to see if some can be reduced or consolidated. Particularly the Boston regional transportation system is overseen by numerous local, regional, and state agencies. The security planning process was complicated by the fact that there was no one clear leader for transportation issues.