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Actor Robert Davi Urges Local Security Forces
An exciting proposal to strengthen national security at the local level, born three weeks after 9/11, is languishing in the Department of Homeland Security's bureaucracy, says its originator, well-known character actor Robert Davi. In an exclusive interview with NewsMax, Davi star of the TV series "Profiler" and scores of films reveals that he has been pushing his idea for a nationally organized group of citizens working with the FBI and local law enforcement to monitor threats to national and local security. He compares the group which he calls Civilian Patrol 93 in homage of the heroes of Flight 93 who are now immortalized in the film "United 93 to a neighborhood watch group organized on a national scale under the supervision of the Department of Homeland Security. Davi said the proposal, which has wide support among FBI agents across the country, remains stalled somewhere in the upper reaches of the department's bureaucracy.
Story Continues Below Davi approached then-Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge three years ago and submitted a presentation for implementing his idea. The change in leadership at the department, however, put a crimp in getting the proposal approved. "Everyone at Homeland Security that works with counter-terrorism says this is the missing piece to homeland security, Davi told NewsMax. "They were really excited about it, but then they changed leadership and that leadership went this way and that way so it's been one frustration after another. Davi explained that after a modest background check and brief training sessions by the FBI and local law enforcement, volunteers would keep tabs on their areas and pass on any information about suspicious activities to the FBI or local law enforcement officials. "It amounts to helping law enforcement on a national level," he said. "Why is this idea that's been around for three years not taken?"
He cited the existence of such groups as the MS13 gangs [the El Salvador-based La Mara Salvatrucha] involved in the drug trade and believed to be cooperating with al-Qaida, and said Civilian Patrol 93 would help law enforcement deal with them on a local level. "The country needs this. It's a volunteer thing. It's not going to cost the government a lot of money except in terms of the FBI's involvement. So many people have said, I want to sign up. This is something that should have been embraced immediately. "I'm sure if somebody higher up or the President heard about it, they'd ask 'Why are we not doing this?'"
Editor's note:
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Homeland/Civil Defense Inside Cover Stories
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