Falco: “… it’s where and when …”
PEARL RIVER – In response to recent domestic and overseas terrorist activity, Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco had a message for members of the Rockland Business Association: “don’t be complacent.”
“It absolutely has to do with what happened in Paris and San Bernardino,” said Rockland Business Association President Al Samuels. “Rockland County is a target area, a potential target area for terrorists and if you listened to the sheriff, he explained where in 2010 the JCC was a target. We know that Rockland was originally considered as a target for 9-11.”
The sheriff had one thing to communicate to the RBA.
“It’s not if it’s going to happen again anywhere in the United States, or in the world, it’s where and when; it’s not if,” said Falco. “Complacency doesn’t work. Everybody gets all ramped up when something happens; they should be ramped up every day and be aware of ‘See Something, Say Something’ and be vigilant all the time, not only when something happens someplace else in the country, or in the world, because we never know.”
Samuels said having the sheriff present at the luncheon on Thursday was a timely and possibly necessary, demonstration the Rockland business community needed because of the seriousness of terrorism.
“We live in very difficult times; we live in very troubling times and we have to recognize that you think the people anywhere in the country, who have had these horrendous gunmen come, terrorists, whether they be just criminal terrorists, or whether they be jihadist terrorists, they didn’t expect that their community was going to get hit,” said Samuels.
Falco assured the attendees of the luncheon that Rockland County police enforcement is on the cutting edge of this issue. He said police are outfitted with Personal Radiation Detection devices (PRDs), RED or backpack radiation detection devices, the most current of active shooter and bomb situation training, as well as having access to plenty of funding for these things that is not at the taxpayer’s expense. The sheriff said, in addition to Homeland Security grant funding, the county utilizes asset forfeiture monies to ensure the best protective measures while providing the least financial burden to its county’s residents.
Both Falco and Samuels agree that the idea is not to spread fear but, awareness and they just want the community to be safe entering the holiday season.
