City Hall vulnerable to attack, warns report

Torontosun.com
Jan. 17, 2020
Sue-Ann Levy

An attacker armed with a concealed weapon could get through the baggage screening security measures now in place at City Hall, says a confidential report obtained by the Toronto Sun.

The confidential report -- which goes to council this month -- says the second floor and the committee rooms where meetings are held are “particularly vulnerable targets” because of the ample number of elected officials, city staff and public onlookers present in a “confined area.”

The Rotunda of City Hall during large events is another “vulnerable target,” the report warns, noting that threats could come not only from “lone actors” inspired by terrorist groups but also from disgruntled constituents and customers, hate groups and opposition movements.

The confidential report is attached to an update on “enhanced” security measures for City Hall which proposes council approve walk-through metal detectors -- now only being used outside the council chambers during meetings -- and physical security enhancements to be installed near the main doors of the iconic building.

The enhancements proposed -- which would include semi-permanent glass partitions and turnstiles (similar to the Presto ones in subway stations) for employees with access cards  -- would cost about $350,000.

The confidential report says the current baggage screening efforts by corporate security guards -- at the first floor’s east and west elevators and at the back door -- yielded 300 prohibited items, including an imitation firearm and pepper sprays.

The report says a “very large knife” was taken from an individual who was later arrested by security on the second floor “for a separate incident.”

At least five prohibited items have been removed from visitors to the council chamber after they went through the metal detectors -- visitors who would have “already had their bags screened” on the first floor.

“These prohibited items were likely carried on their person,” the report says.

As the confidential report quite rightly notes, baggage screening does not catch concealed weapons. The screening locations -- situated as they are on the very open main floor -- also make it easy for a visitor to slip by undetected to other floors or sensitive areas.

“An example of this (the latter) situation occurred in August 2019 involving two individuals who were restricted from accessing the second floor (and did anyway) and which led to the assault of a security guard,” the report says.

The report notes there is even a problem with city access and I.D. cards -- which have been used for years and are easy to replicate. It suggests a card flashed at a security guard at the baggage screening area (as I do as a member of the media) may not be active or real.

A turnstile, together with an access card reader, would solve the problem, the report states.

As is noted in the report to council -- which came before the general government committee on Jan. 6 -- city staff first proposed the walk-through metal detectors at the front entrance to council in December 2017.

However, that report was deferred until June 2018 when council voted 25-8 for the baggage screening on the first floor and 22-11 for metal detectors outside the council chambers.

Even when the item came to general government committee on Jan. 6, both chairman Paul Ainslie and Councillor Josh Matlow expressed concern that City Hall would look like an “armed camp” with metal detectors -- clearly refusing to admit the world has changed.

“The thing I love about this place is that it’s such a public building,” Matlow said, noting his worry that the “public space experience” would become like “Fort Knox.”

Dwaine Nichol, director of corporate security, told the committee there have been “no complaints” about the baggage screening or the metal detectors and they “just want to make the place safer.”