Local Shopping Malls May Or May Not Be Ready For Terrorist Attack
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Local shopping malls didn't want to engage publicly about their security measures, but all seemed aware that a Somali group called al-Shabaab had issued a general threat, as reported on Australian television.
"Imagine what a dedicated mujahedeen in the west could do to American or Jewish owned shopping centers across the world," a masked al-Shabaab member says to the camera. "What if such an attack could occur in the Mall of America."
While no local malls were named, the International Council of Shopping Centers insists, through spokesman Jesse Tron, "When a threat like that comes in, everyone in the industry is going to take notice."
Tron at the Council would not get specific, but he told KDKA money editor Jon Delano that each mall develops its own strategy working with local law enforcement.
"There is no one size fits all model when it comes to security. Each property is unique, and that's important," added Tron.
Point Park University Professor Gregory Rogers, who has worked with Homeland Security, Secret Service, and Special Forces, says al-Shabaab is not a direct threat here but notes, "We're always concerned with the lone wolf, the one who thinks he's in this great organization and decides to do something."
But this region's recent experience at mall security raises questions.
If security at Monroeville Mall could not prevent a 17-year-old kid from shooting three victims inside Macy's, then is there really anything a mall can do to guard against a much stronger terrorist threat?
"Very difficult, very difficult," says Kack Modrick with SSIS.
SSIS provides security for school districts and commercial parks.
Modrick says the best solution is tough.
"They're going to have to secure these malls with metal detectors and stop everyone coming in, search them, do the metal detector thing to make sure there are no weapons," he adds.
Absent that, the better malls hire, train, and pay more for top quality security, notes Rogers, "and they have police officers in the mall."
And even that may not be enough.
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