Dallas Sniper Attack Impacts GOP Convention Security Preparations
Law enforcement officials says they are ready to protect GOP convention.
— -- As thousands of political activists, delegates, members of the media -- and the presumptive Republican nominee for president -- prepare the descend on Cleveland in the coming days, the deadly attack on police officers in Dallas last week has impacted security preparations at the Republican National Convention, police said.
“Of course an event like [the Dallas attack], a tragedy like that, definitely impacts our planning. It impacts this country as a whole,” Cleveland Division of Police Chief Calvin Williams said today. “So, it affects our planning, but we have planned, we have ‘what iffed,’ we have table-topped this from day one to yesterday, and everything that can and will happen we have planned for.”
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy, and Williams outlined the planning and coordination of 73 law enforcement agencies providing security in Cleveland with reporters at a secret location staging a multi-agency coordination center (MACC) on the sidelines of the convention. Reporters agreed not to disclose the location of the MACC to attend the briefing.
“We have been planning for close to a year -- table tops, tactical groups coming together to train in one location,” Clancy said. “The planning that we’ve done puts us in a very good position to be very successful this week.”
Clancy and Williams did not specify how exactly the Dallas sniper attack impacted their preparations, but offered their condolences to everyone touched by the attack.
Williams said law enforcement is ready for every imaginable scenario that could happen at the convention.
“Of course there is always the eventuality of something that may or may not happen,” Williams said. “We want to make sure that people understand that our partners here are prepared for anything and everything.”
Clancy added there is "no specific credible threat" to the convention.
Williams also said he spoke to Cleveland Browns runningback Isaiah Crowell after the star posted an artistic depiction on Instagram of a masked man slitting the throat of a uniformed officer.
Williams said he purposely has not viewed Crowell's post but that Crowell was "apologetic." Williams said he believes the post was "in the heat of the moment,” although he called it "bad choice, bad decision" by Crowell.