Lawmakers looking to cash-strapped local police for extra security

up if they continue in the long term.

“The individual cops and sheriffs will do whatever they’re asked to do to protect elected representatives of the people, but you can’t get away from the fact that it will cost a lot of time and money to do a good job and it will have to be a federal responsibility to cover that,” he said.

Sheldon Greenberg, an associate dean of the Division of Public Safety Leadership at Johns Hopkins University, said there’s a difference between police departments being “shorthanded and not adequately analyzing resources you have to determine how they can be best used.

“A lot of agencies in my opinion are not shorthanded, but haven’t allocated their people well,” Greenberg said, explaining that patrol services are treated as a lower priority while resources are poured into specialty units and task forces.

Greenberg said he doesn’t believe there will be a flood of requests from lawmakers for additional security.

“In the short term, there may be a flurry of activity, but normalcy will prevail,” he said. “The worst thing that could happen would be to turn an average town hall meeting into a law enforcement endeavor. It’s not what this country wants or will tolerate.”

The House has not arrived at a conclusion yet on how it will provide more protection for members.

The proposal from Jackson, who is also working to restore last week’s 5 percent cut in member budgets, would add 10 percent to lawmakers’ budgets for district offices, an increase that he says would translate into hiring more security personnel for public events in some districts, installing surveillance cameras or improving the locks or entry systems at district offices. One option he suggested is using additional resources to move some lawmakers’ offices to safer areas.

“I do not feel that fear should grip us, but since 9/11 we’ve secured every federal facility with the exception of our district offices,” Jackson said in a statement. “After the events of last weekend, it is clear that our district staffs are vulnerable. Members should have the resources and the latitude to take the appropriate security measures in order to protect themselves and their staffs.”

Freshman Representative Michael Grimm, who is a former law enforcement officer, says no additional money is required. Instead, he wants to offer low-cost security awareness training for lawmakers and their staff. “I firmly believe this training will be beneficial in various situations, from accidents and illnesses to acts of violence or terrorism they may encounter,” he wrote.