Presidential Safety: What’s Enough? : Access-versus-security issue in wake of shooting

In more innocent times few barriers stood between Presidents and the people they were elected to serve. The nation’s chief executives would routinely mingle with the public, sometimes shaking hands with thousands in a single day at White House receptions or regularly riding in open carriages or cars along spectator-filled streets or strolling through crowds to be seen and spoken to. It was what Presidents chose to do, and it was what was expected of them.

Innocence ended in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

Since then the ring of protection around the President has grown steadily tighter. We can expect it to tighten still more as a result of last Saturday’s shooting at the White House. The need, as always, will be to assure the fullest protection to the President and those closest to him without imposing on him an unhealthy isolation or subjecting the public to costly and disruptive inconveniences.

Sweeping security measures already seek to shield the President from harm, both in Washington and when he travels. Even the shortest presidential trip is preceded by elaborate security planning and measures, sometimes involving thousands of security personnel. At home a 10-foot-high fence surrounds the White House and patrolling guards, motion sensors and TV cameras monitor its grounds. Bulletproof glass protects the main mansion, though not the press briefing room, which was struck by some shots. Bomb-sniffing dogs inspect every vehicle entering the grounds, and barriers aim to thwart suicide car bombers. Marksmen are on constant duty on the White House roof. In all, it is the best protection that technology and planning can provide.

And none of it prevented Francisco Martin Duran from walking up Pennsylvania Avenue last Saturday afternoon, poking his Chinese-made assault rifle through the White House fence and emptying a full magazine at the West Wing. Duran was apparently trying to reload when he was subdued by passersby.

The Secret Service, charged with the President’s protection, has long wanted to close Pennsylvania Avenue, fearing just the kind of attack that has now taken place. But the street is a main traffic thoroughfare as well as the prime vantage point for tourists who want a view of what President Clinton rightly calls the people’s house. Blocking off the street is no answer. A constant and heavy police presence on the sidewalks is probably a much better approach.

Saturday’s shooting exposed a weak point in the White House’s defenses. What’s required is to fix it with the least disruption to civic life.