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Security beefed up at public
housing
Terror alert leads to more police and staff
By
John Tuohy
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
February 20, 2003
Security has been stepped
up at public housing complexes in Indianapolis in response to government
warnings that they could be targeted by terrorists.
The FBI has
said terrorists have been heard planning to rent an apartment somewhere in
the United States, then blow up the entire building. But when that
forewarning was reiterated this month when the national terror alert level
was raised to orange, local housing agency officials responded with a
number of actions, including:
• Increasing police patrols at all
public housing complexes. Shifts of housing police have been changed to
match those of the Indianapolis Police Department for better
coordination.
• Hiring tenants of each building to staff the front
desks from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily and screen visitors.
• Upgrading
sprinkler systems and alarms, plus installing a new computerized
switchboard at Lugar Tower Apartments.
Concerns about an attack are
especially acute at the two Downtown public-housing high rises, where
terrorists are discussed at resident meetings.
Lugar Tower, 901
Fort Wayne Ave., is yards from Central Indiana Red Cross, which
coordinates statewide disaster assistance. If the 18-story apartment
building were destroyed and the Red Cross building damaged, relief efforts
statewide could be crippled, Housing Agency Executive Director Rufus "Bud"
Myers said.
Lugar Tower could be inviting to terrorists because it
is named for U.S. Sen. Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind., who heads the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Myers said.
Lugar Tower residents now study new faces,
mark strange behavior, note odd comments.
"We never know when the
biggie is going to hit," said Joy J. Moore, president of the tenants
association.
Many of the residents are disabled. Officials said 40
escape chairs that can help the disabled get down stairs have been
purchased for about $38,000.
Sprinkler systems have replaced fire hoses
in hallways, and back-up generators have been installed in case of power
failure.
Smoke alarms, sprinklers and emergency pull cords that
connect to the new computerized switchboard in the Lugar Tower lobby have
been installed in each apartment.
Total costs were not
available.
The housing agency also is scrutinizing
visitors to all its buildings more closely, having banned 30 guests since
Jan. 1 for violations of public housing rules.
One result has been
a 9.5 percent drop in crime, agency officials said.
"We keep an eye
out for each other a lot more than we used to," said resident Tom Ross,
54.
More than 600 people live in the housing agency's Downtown
buildings, including the eight-story John J. Barton Annex and the nearby
21-story John J. Barton Apartments, 555 Massachusetts Ave.
More
than 5,000 people live in the city's 11 public housing complexes, Myers
said.
People who work in other tall buildings
Downtown also have expressed concern about terrorist attacks, prompting
the Indianapolis Fire Department to review and fine-tune emergency and
evacuation plans in the city's tall buildings -- especially the roughly
200 structures within a mile of Monument Circle that are four stories or
higher.
Housing agency officials said public and private apartment
managers were among those notified when the terror threat level was raised
to code orange, where it's been for two weeks.
The Apartment
Association of Indiana distributed fliers to private apartment managers,
advising residents to be watchful.
For public housing residents,
living with the threat of an attack is now part of their daily
lives.
"I am very curious about strange faces now," Lugar Tower
resident Moore said.
If someone told her before the terror
attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that Lugar Tower would
be a target, "I would have thought it was absurd," Moore said. "I could
have never entertained such an idea."
"It is hard to think that
people would think of buildings full of seniors and disabled people as
some kind of target," Ross said.
"It saddens me. You just don't know what
people are going to do anymore, and it makes me nervous," Lucille Perry,
75, said. "When I hear an airplane go by, it makes me
wonder."
Frank Stewart, 50, said he doesn't fret at
all.
Even if terrorists did attack, "how can you stop it?" he
asked.
"They have ways of getting in."
Barton Apartments resident Joyce Maul said
security was still lacking there.
"It would be relatively easy to
get in here."
Call Star reporter John Tuohy at
1-317-444-6418.
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