This morning, I was at LAX with Chief Beck, Assistant Chief Michael Moore, Deputy Chief Mike Downing and Chief George Centeno (Airport PD) to launch iWATCH, a new anti-terrorist program that will undoubtedly increase our City's counterterrorism capabilities.
As the recent event in New York City Time Square has shown us, terrorism continues to be one of the gravest threats facing our major cities. Even with bigger police forces and new technology, we know that our law enforcement officers cannot be everywhere and see everything. It was the keen eye of a t-shirt vendor in Time Square that allowed police to be alerted to an SUV filled with three propane tanks, fireworks and gallons of gasoline that if ignited would have caused horrific damage to that New York City landmark.
With Los Angeles consistently ranking very high on terrorist target lists, we need the help of everyone in our community to watch over our city. Considered to be a 21st Century Neighborhood Watch, iWatch adds another tool to our tool belt to protect against terrorist threats by educating members of the public about specific behaviors and activities that should be reported.
Los Angeles is one of the first cities to adopt a program that educates communities and works with law enforcement to prevent terrorism in our City. I am proud to introduce iWATCH to our City because it is a program that focuses on specific, suspicious behaviors and not on personal characteristics or racial profiling.
I encourage you to go to iWATCHLA.org to educate yourself on how you can help keep our community safe.
Follow Antonio Villaraigosa on Twitter: www.twitter.com/villaraigosa
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