New Mexico public safety officials get high-security training from Sandia this week

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — State and local law enforcement and corrections officials from New Mexico and across the nation are getting a crash course in security techniques and technologies this week from Sandia National Laboratories.

Sandia organizers hope the 25 participants will come away from the five-day training course, July 30 - Aug. 3, with new skills in designing security systems and evaluating their effectiveness, improving their home communities’ security infrastructures against serious crime and acts of terrorism, and preventing and responding to public safety incidents such as natural disasters, prison escapes, or riots.

“As a nation we worry about serious incidents, but local and state officials don’t always have access to the resources they need to plan for them,” says Gordon Smith, Manager of Sandia’s Public Safety Technologies Department.

“This training brings some of the security expertise available at the national level to bear on public safety issues in our cities and rural communities,” he says. “The goal is to make New Mexico a safer place to live.”

The conference is sponsored by Sandia and its parent company, Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Sandia is the lead U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory for the physical security technologies that protect DOE facilities and the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. The lab has nationally recognized expertise in security technologies and approaches, security vulnerability assessments of government and private facilities, security and law enforcement product evaluation, corrections technologies, and more.

The conference includes workshops on defining potential threats, identifying security vulnerabilities, indoor and outdoor security technologies, security-system assessments, entry control, response to security incidents, and risk analysis, as well as a tours of areas incorporating security technologies and methods.

Sandia and Lockheed Martin are providing the course at no charge; participants pay only their travel expenses.

Participants represent the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, New Mexico Department of Corrections, New Mexico State Police, Albuquerque Police Department, Albuquerque Public Schools, Albuquerque Fire Department, Bernalillo County Sheriff, and Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety. Out-of-state participants include federal immigration officials, federal and state prison officials, and various county sheriff’s departments.

Sandia has held similar training courses for other organizations across the country. This is the first course to be held for New Mexico officials.

The course also highlights the availability of law enforcement and technology assistance through the Office of Science and Technology (OST) of the National Institute of Justice. Among the resources available through OST is the Center for Civil Force Protection (CCFP), which is managed by Sandia.

The CCFP provides a national hot line, a virtual information booth, and security and technology advice for government and business officials responsible for safeguarding their communities. (For more information, see www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR2000/ccfp.htm, or call the CCFP hot line toll-free at 1-888-577-4849.)