Industry News

Feb 1, 1997 12:00 PM, Staff

Two bombs exploded Jan. 16 at a family planning clinic in an Atlanta suburb, raising questions about security at more than 2,000 such facilities across the country. The following weekend, two more bombs exploded at a Tulsa, Okla., family planning clinic. Seven people were reportedly injured in the Atlanta bombing.

According to media reports, the first bomb was planted at the southwest corner of the building, where the Atlanta Northside Family Planning Clinic is located, and the second was near a trash container in the parking lot on the building's northwest side. It was the second bomb, detonated 65 minutes after the first, that caused the injuries, sending shrapnel into the crowd of police, FBI and ATF agents, the media and onlookers. The Tulsa bombing resulted in no injuries. U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander, quoted in an Atlanta newspaper, said he is not ruling out the possibility of domestic terrorism unrelated to clinic violence. Whether political terrorism or random violence, security questions hang in the air like the smoke after the latest explosion.

If somebody is intent on planting a bomb, there is not much you can do, comments Don McNaughton, president of DM McNaughton Consulting Inc. But you can do an awful lot to make it difficult for them. His company focuses on improving security management and control at hospitals, colleges and universities, and tourist facilities.

McNaughton says a misconception is that a fence and CCTV cameras will solve the problem. It's really not that simple, he says. It depends on where the camera is looking and who is monitoring it. You might recognize somebody doing something after the fact, but that really doesn't prevent you from getting blown up.

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