Workers Get Anti-Terror Lessons

Police and service union officials announced Wednesday that 28,000 workers in New York’s apartment buildings are beginning to receive anti-terrorism training.

In addition to hailing taxis, fixing leaky faucets and greeting visitors, the doormen, porters and superintendents will now be asked to help identify suspicious people and packages -- and told what to do if terrorists attack.

As part of the curriculum, doormen are advised to be on the lookout for cars and trucks that seem out of place or are parked too long near buildings. Superintendents are told to be vigilant in monitoring people with little or no furniture or newly opened bank accounts who move into apartments. And they are taught to be wary of anyone taking pictures of the structure.

“The police and the building service workers are natural allies,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Wednesday. “Both work around the clock, both are in the business of protecting people. This program gives us a powerful network of eyes and ears on the streets.”

Announcement of the project -- a joint effort by landlords and building owners and the Service Employees International Union -- took place in the lobby of a 17-story apartment house in Manhattan near the Hudson River.

Kelly noted the timeliness of the program, coming as U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III called on the nation Wednesday to help find seven suspected Al Qaeda operatives and to head off a possible attack in the U.S.

The commissioner said the nation’s top law enforcement officials were calling for additional vigilance, and enrolling apartment workers in the war against terrorism is one answer.

“It is an extension of the Police Department’s ability to respond to problems,” he said.

The program, called “New York Safe and Secure,” was developed by instructors at the Police Academy, the Fire Department and the city’s Office of Emergency Management. It provides four hours of security awareness training for personnel in 3,500 residential buildings, and covers topics from weapons of mass destruction to how to identify false documents.

During one exercise, officials said, a visitor enters the room while a lecture is going on and leaves after about 15 minutes. The building staff is then asked what the person looked like.

“Everyone comes up with a different description -- what color suit he was wearing, what color shoes he had on,” said Linda Nelson, the program’s training director. “We really work on observation skills, honing them and using them more effectively.”

Building personnel also receive detailed advice on how to handle letters and packages. Doormen are told that bombs sometimes are contained in letters with excessive postage or in envelopes marked “confidential” or with a postmark with a ZIP Code different than that on the return address.

Effective communication with first responders also was stressed.