San Bernardino County Security Upgrades Under Review Following Deadly Rampage
Officials say the county’s security assessment in the wake of the Dec. 2 shootings is a redoubling of its ongoing efforts to continually re-examine employee and public safety at its facilities.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department on Dec. 3, 2015, tweeted this image of two handguns and two firearms recovered from the scene of a shootout with the suspects in a mass shooting in San Bernardino.
SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Nearly two weeks after a San Bernardino County health inspector and his wife shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others during a county training event and holiday luncheon for its environmental health employees, the county continues re-examining security at all its facilities, the San Bernardino County Sun reported.
Both short-term and long-term security enhancements are planned, the newspaper reported.
“(The county) will also implement long-term measures focusing on physical improvements to buildings that would limit entrance points and control access to employee work areas,” county spokesman David Wert told the The Sun. “Some of the things the county will do will require major restructuring and remodeling efforts.”
Wert confirmed additional sheriff’s deputies have already been assigned to some county facilities, but would not disclose how many deputies and which facilities they have been assigned.
“By saying where we have them also reveals where we don’t,” Wert said via The Sun. He said the county will be working with an outside consultant to look at all county facilities and determine the best ways to protect employees and the public.
“As we do with every event like this, we do a top-to-bottom re-examining of our security to see if there’s more that we can do,” Wert said. “The county’s going to do everything that it can to make employees and the public as safe as possible in our facilities.”
San Bernardino County Supervisor Josie Gonzales
The Environmental Health Services division, which had been closed since the shootings, reopened Dec. 13 with temporary staffing. The division’s more than 100 regular employees will likely remain on leave until January, according to The Sun. The Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday (Dec. 15) on the matter, county spokesman David Wert said.
The county’s security assessment in the wake of the Dec. 2 shootings, Wert said, is a redoubling of its ongoing efforts to continually re-examine employee and public safety at its facilities and make any necessary adjustments as the need arises. Those efforts, said Wert, have been underway since 9-11 and a mass shooting at Riverside City Hall in 1998 in which three council members and three police officers were wounded.
“The county’s measures have been evolving since then,” Wert told the newspaper. “We’re in a constant process of always examining and re-examining and reassessing the county’s security measures based on the latest theories and views of those in the security business.”
County Supervisor Josie Gonzales told the newspaper the security overhaul is a “custom design approach” based on the needs of each county department.
“There are some departments that have a higher degree of exposure, or propensity, if you will, to fear that some kind of danger could present itself,” Gonzales said.
The Department of Children and Family Services, for example, handles “extremely sensitive” family cases that could necessitate additional security, whereas the Department of Public Works, where risk inside county offices could be minimal, may be a whole different story for workers in the field who could be more vulnerable to attack, Gonzales said.
“The fact is, there are multiple scenarios that have to be explored and then brought back to determine which ones fit what department, because it is not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Gonzales said.
Syed Rizwan Farook worked as an environmental health specialist for the county for five years, responsible mainly for conducting health inspections at restaurants, schools, and other businesses.
Owners of some of the businesses Farook inspected requested the letter grade placards he signed be replaced, so the county decided to just replace the placards at all businesses inspected by Farook, Wert said.
The county conducted a standard criminal background check on Farook prior to his employment, Wert said.
“If there was anything that would have indicated that he wouldn’t be appropriate for this job then he probably wouldn’t have been hired,” Wert said. “Everyone who works for the county is appropriately screened before they are hired.”
Farook’s position wasn’t one that necessitated further screening, such as a credit check or Internet and social media search, which is sometimes done for higher-profile positions, said Wert.
“For a position like this, we probably wouldn’t do something like that,” Wert said.
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