The man who headed New York’s police department on September 11th is in Muscatine today to speak to the Iowa State Police Association’s annual conference. Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik says in a post-9/11 war on terror, it’s important that local authorities understand the threats that are out there.Kerik says preparing, planning and practicing crisis management is key to responding to any major incident. Kerik says there were a lot of things he and others did in New York City prior to 9/11 to prepare for a crisis, and that led to successfully evacuating 25-thousand people out of the buildings in the area. Kerik says it will take some money to ensure city and county officials around the country can communicate with one another during a crisis. Kerik says, though, the key to success to combatting terror will be intelligence and information sharing. He says in rural areas, that may not take technology, but it’ll take understanding and cooperating among local, state and federal officials. Kerik says the objective is to find the terrorist and arrest them, not caring who gets credit for the arrest. But Kerik says it will take extra resources — money — for technology that will help various levels of law enforcement communicate effectively. Kerik is meeting with Iowa’s law enforcement community in Muscatine ’til noon today. Kerik was dispatched to Iraq last year by President Bush where he spent a few months helping rebuild Iraq’s police, fire and emergency services.
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