Boston Marathon bombings and lessons learned in last 10 years focus of Senate hearing
WASHINGTON, DC - More than 10 years after the Boston Marathon bombings, there have been big advancements in security and technology.
Those were the topics of a Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing Wednesday in Washington.
New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan is the chair of the Emerging Threats and Spending Oversight Subcommittee. She and Utah Senator Mitt Romney led the hearing which focused on how ready authorities are for another terrorist attack.
In the months after the attack, it was revealed that bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on the FBI's radar for months but Boston Police didn't know. Kerry Sleeper, a former deputy director of the FBI, said that wouldn't happen today.
"Protocols and processes were changed where the FBI ensured that information was being shared in the JTTFs [Joint Terrorism Task Forces], with their state and local partners for public safety purposes," said Sleeper.
Former Boston Police Commissioner and WBZ security analyst Ed Davis was one of the first experts to testify. He spoke about improvements in surveillance video technology that have been made since the bombings and said interpersonal relationships were a big help to him.
"We knew what needed to be done and what resources were available to accomplish that task," said Davis.
He also said the use of artificial intelligence presents a "clear and present danger to the safety of the American public." He added that he believes police are being handcuffed in communities where facial recognition software has been banned, calling it "scary."
Hassan spoke to WBZ-TV ahead of the hearing.
"It was very important to me that we take a moment to honor the victims, recognize the tragedy of that day and then make sure we are as prepared as we can be to prevent another attack like the Boston bombing from ever happening again," Hassan said.