Truckers recruited by Homeland Security to ‘report suspicious activity’
September 10, 2009 by supermario
Filed under Police State
Times-Herald Online
Rachel Raskin-Zrihen
A local truck driving school became the first on the West Coast to be trained for a new federal anti-terrorism program, the school’s owner and the instructor said.
Robert Hertan, an instructor from Maryland-based Total Security Services International, Inc., led the three-hour class at Vallejo’s Falcon Truck School recently. He said the federal Transportation Security Administration hired his firm to train transportation professionals for the “First Observer” program.
“This is a Department of Homeland Security program, funded by FEMA and administered by the TSA,” Hertan said.
The heart of the training is to use truckers to keep an eye out for — and report — suspicious behavior that could be part of a terrorist operation or some other attack like that on the state capitol eight years ago.
Timing and convenience combined to make Falcon the first school to get this training, but it’s spreading nationwide, Hertan said. Some trucking and school bus firms have been trained, and though specific results are unavailable, it’s working, he said.
