Governor creates California homeland security office

By ROBERT JABLON
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) Gov. Gray Davis created a state Office of Homeland Security on Friday as the federal government raised the national terror alert status to ``high risk.''

Davis said there was ``no direct threat to California or any other place in America'' but urged people to report anything suspicious to law enforcement.

``We're encouraging everyone to go about their lives normally but to be alert and vigilant,'' the governor said at a press conference. ``Phone the police. Phone the sheriff. Phone the California Highway Patrol.''

``So far, God has smiled and we really haven't had an incident in this state or frankly in any state since 9-11 with the possible exception of the anthrax situation immediately after 9-11,'' Davis said.

He said the new office would help coordinate and share information among California's 90,000 police officers, sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement officials.

The governor said responses to the alert included ordering the CHP to notify law enforcement agencies about what information it has received from the federal government.

Cities and counties were advised to work with private transportation, energy and financial businesses in taking security measures recommended by the federal government, and state officials were told to take steps to protect their information technology systems.

The state already had beefed up security at bridges, power plants, aqueducts and other critical places after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Davis said.

People may see more guards at banks and nuclear power plants, the governor said.

Indeed, by Friday afternoon California Highway Patrol officers were stationed just beyond the toll plaza of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, randomly stopping and inspecting trucks. The inspections were part of a mobile unit that would be roving the Bay Area over the weekend, CHP officer Erika Winfield said.

U.S. border authorities began conducting more vehicle searches, according to Lauren Mack of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Authorities began entering the names of every person crossing into the United States on foot into an INS computer system linked to FBI, Interpol and other police databases.

Commercial vehicles entering from Mexico were to undergo more thorough inspections, and an increased number will be X-rayed, U.S. Customs spokesman Vince Bond said.

``It may be drugs. It may be (smuggled) avocados. It may be Cuban cigars. It may be weapons of mass destruction. We're looking for anomalies,'' Bond said.

In El Centro, Border Patrol Agent Maria Martinez said access to the agency's facilities had been restricted after the terror alerts. Minutes after the terror alert was issued, reporters attending a press conference addressing improved security at the San Ysidro crossing were shooed out of the building.

In San Francisco, officials from the fire, police, office of emergency services, mayor's office and other agencies met Friday afternoon.

The city was increasing attention to landmarks and entry points and speaking with other state and federal law enforcement agencies, said P.J. Johnston, Mayor Willie Brown's spokesman.

At the Golden Gate Bridge, authorities had already been on a ``heightened alert condition'' since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Mary Currie, spokeswoman for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway & Transportation District.

``We plan for everything we can plan for,'' she said. Currie declined to provide specific information about security measures but said they can include air patrols and truck inspections.

At the landmark Transamerica Pyramid, building management increased patrols around the perimeter, said spokeswoman Nancy Green.

Other security measures have been in the works since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she said. As part of those efforts, workers were installing narrow steel pillars buried 12 feet deep, and rising 3 feet out of the ground, around the 48-story office building, she said.

The Los Angeles Police Department put its operations center on around-the-clock staffing and sent extra patrols to 549 sites identified in terrorism response plans.

John Miller, deputy chief of the LAPD's homeland security bureau, urged people to watch for unusual activities such as people lugging suspicious chemicals or electronics into apartments, ``six people coming and going from an apartment that they don't seem to be staying in'' or people videotaping or photographing power plants, water supplies, bridges and tunnels.

He also pleaded for tolerance.

``Being Islamic or of Middle Eastern descent or a Sikh or someone who wears traditional garb is in and of itself not suspicious,'' he said.

Davis said the the state homeland security office, headed by former CHP officer and FBI agent George Vinson, will coordinate and rapidly share information among law enforcement around the state.

``Obviously, we don't tell independently elected sheriffs or police chiefs what to do,'' Davis said.

The office will oversee about 200 to 300 employees of the Office of Emergency Services and the Office of Criminal Justice Planning. The latter two offices will report to the governor through the OHS.

The plan requires some legislation, which is expected to come in a few weeks, the governor's office said.

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Associated Press Writers Chelsea J. Carter, Catherine Ivey and Deborah Kong contributed to this report.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)