Venue Profile
Staples Center, located in Los Angeles, CA, is one of the biggest multipurpose entertainment and sports facilities across the country. The building measures a total of almost 1 million square feet, with a height of 150 feet and a large arena within the facility (94×200 feet). For different sporting or entertainment events, the Staples Center arenas may seat up from 18,340 to 20,000 people. The lower bowl of the Staples Center features 2,500 club seats and two-thirds of the total number of seats. The upper and lower bowls are separated by three levels that contain 15 event suites and an overall of 160 luxury suites. The Staples Center is owned and operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group and the Arturo L.A. Arena Company (). The arena serves as the home venue for LA Clippers and LA Lakers of the National Basketball Association, LA Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Association, and the LA Kings of the National Hockey League. On average, Staples Center hosts nearly 4 million guests per annum (with approximately 250 events).
Hospital Profile
As one of the largest public hospitals in the United States, Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center (LAC+USC) serves as the biggest care provider in Los Angeles County as well. This is a Level I trauma center that is located approximately 10 minutes from the Staples Center. Not only this hospital is one of the best facilities for the medically underserved population, but also a facility that takes care of one-third of trauma victims from the region (Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, 2020). The hospital features 600 beds and mostly focuses on the populations affected by AIDS and sickle-cell anemia. Los Angeles County Department of Health Services owns the LAC + USC. There is a full spectrum of emergency services that are provided to all types of patients (outpatient and inpatient). The approximate list of services provided by LAC+USC includes emergency, medical, surgical, obstetric, and psychiatric amenities. Across the Western region of the United States, LAC+USC is arguably the busiest public hospital that discharges approximately 40,000 inpatients per annum.
As for the emergency department located within the LAC+USC, it experiences more than 150,000 visits annually, which makes this care provision unit one of the most hectic across the globe. Across Los Angeles County, there are only three burn centers, and one of them is operated within the LAC+USC. Speaking of Southern California, the LAC+USC is one of the few hospitals where Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Units exist. In addition to all the benefits mentioned above, there is an increasingly high number of professional nurses that graduate from the Los Angeles County College of Nursing and Allied Health (Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, 2020). There are numerous experts in health care that support the Trauma Training Center for the US Navy, where medical workers gain more knowledge regarding how to treat even battlefield injuries. The closest police department is within five minutes, so both law enforcement and care provision teams could be able to respond to a terrorist attack promptly.
Law Enforcement Profile
As for the response system that is established in Los Angeles, the first important agency is the Coroner’s Special Operation Response Team (SORT). The latter contains additional units that specialize in weapons of mass destruction and continually train to establish a safe local environment and protect Los Angeles citizens from terrorist attacks. Another critical unit is bomb appraisal officers who have to monitor the surroundings for any suspicious activity or individuals. The current level of preparedness across different LAPD units is rather high, allowing it to handle multiple sites simultaneously and develop response plans that would only involve FBI agents or a SWAT team in extreme cases. Knowledgeable prevention of human fatalities and other casualties serves as the core objective pursued by LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department, 2020). Even though homeland security is a time-consuming, resource-intensive initiative, Los Angeles authorities recurrently invest in counter-terrorist activities.
The existing evidence proves a strong relationship between the state homeland security administrator and LAPD, which means that the information regarding potential attacks reaches law enforcement agencies rather quickly. Positive interactions between agencies could also contribute to the swiftness of a potential terrorist attack response because local approaches could be later translated into state-level initiatives (Abrahms & Gottfried, 2016). Knowing that LAPD was first organized as a counterterrorism unit, it may be safe to say that existing law enforcement agencies successfully respond to critical incidents. The level of preparedness to terrorist attacks across Los Angeles is exceptional, meaning that the Staples Center will be protected by a combination of the following factors: (a) trained workforce, (b) timely information exchange, and (c) a close-knit association of law enforcement agencies.
Description and Summary
The first law enforcement stakeholder that should be involved in the terrorist attack response is LAPD. Knowing that there is a Counterterrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau that functions as a collection, analysis, and dissemination instrument, it may be safe to say that its influence on an incident response would be massive. On the other hand, there is a specialized Human Source Development Unit that complements the Counterterrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau and creates more opportunities to hire experienced informants and help them infiltrate terrorist networks. An adequate response to a potential terrorist attack also requires LAPD to contact Terrorism Liaison Offices and disclose attack plots before the latter becomes a reality (Coaffee, 2016; Cui et al., 2016). The inherent connection between gangs, mafia members, and extremists makes it easier to define when and how a potential attack could damage the Staples Center. One of the main benefits of the Los Angeles area is that there is an increased willingness to collaborate displayed by local law enforcement agents who may easily communicate their concerns to regional, state, and federal law enforcement representatives in the case of an emergency.
From the present information on law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles, it may be concluded that there are relatively high standards promoted within the Los Angeles area that significantly reduce the probability of an incorrect response to a terrorist attack. Given that all law enforcement agents are trained together, they all gather more insight into different terrorist threats and develop an understanding of how to react and collaborate in the case where terror strikes. There may be numerous events altering the probable response to an attack, which also means that LAPD could avoid confusion by working out attack scenarios in advance. Based on the existing evidence, law enforcement agencies could join their efforts and come up with specialized training sessions intended to help law enforcement officers realize their responsibilities and potential ways of responding to the threat. Bomb appraisal officers, for example, would have to spot concealed bombs or suspicious vehicles that could transport explosives. While there is a bomb squad in LAPD, bomb appraisal officers could react to the prospective danger much quicker. These individuals are also more perspective than their police bomb squad counterparts, which helps them to disrupt common local operations.
References
Abrahms, M., & Gottfried, M. S. (2016). Does terrorism pay? An empirical analysis. Terrorism and Political Violence, 28(1), 72-89.
Coaffee, J. (2016). Terrorism, risk and the global city: Towards urban resilience. Routledge.
Cui, J., Rosoff, H., & John, R. S. (2016). Cumulative response to sequences of terror attacks varying in frequency and trajectory. Risk Analysis, 36(12), 2272-2284.
Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. (2020). LAC+USC. Web.
Los Angeles Police Department. (2020). Los Angeles Police Department. Web.
STAPLES Center. (2020). General information & FAQ | STAPLES Center. Web.