Day 18: MIPT

A fairly short day, with going to the MIPT (National Memorial Insitute for the Prevention of Terroism) and then the Oklahoma City National Museum. 

The MIPT was established as an institute dedicated to terrorism prevention (domestic and international). It used to improve the policing and information skills of the 850,000 law enforcement officers in the US.  InCOP (Information Collection on Patrol) is a series of workshops that enhance departmental intelligence capacity, both in traditional crime and terrorism prevention, by progressively improving the collection skills of the line officer, improving the quality and quantity of acquiring the information. There are 4 different types of InCOP. InCOP 1 is centred around information collecting so that they report suspicious activity. This should make them more aware of their surroundings. InCOP 2 is where they learn about source assessment and development. This is where they develop skills in recognising a good resource. InCOP 3observes an open facilitated dialogue between officers and crime analyst. While InCOP 4 teaches the evolution and changes of the terrorism threat, the current terrorist threat, terrorist tactics and operations and how to develop warnings and indicators as well as detect them. With the training the different services try and remain 1 step ahead as prevention is the goal. This is training is always training and remains up to date and fits around the trainee. 


After the presentation we had the chance to go through the Oklahoma City National Museum. The museum guides you through the events of the Oklahoma Bombings in April 19th, 1995. Starting from when the Alfred P Murrah Federal building was built, the minutes before the bombing then the minutes, days, weeks and years following the bombing. 


You go through the museum in a chronological museum. You learn about the layout of the building and what it looked like before the incident. You then move to another part of the museum where you can hear an official recording of the Oklahoma Water Resources Board meeting, the building just across the street from the Murrah Buildings. The meeting started at 9:00am, and about 2 minutes into the recording you can hear the bomb that went off across the street. When you listen to the meeting, it just sounds like any other meeting, then you hear the explosion, everything changes for them and everything is in disorder. Then you go to the next section of the museum where you see some of the wreckage from the disaster, destoryed files, miscelanious left on the site, rubble etc. Then you watch the news coverage of the incident and the confusion of what had just happened to them. Its such a devastating thing that could have happened to so many people. 


You hear the stories of the rescue effort, trying to get as many survivors out of the wreckage and to be reunited with their loved ones. During the first few hours after the explosion, its frantic rescue. Other rescue services from the different states. Then the final hours of the rescue operations. The museum have a gallery to honor the lives of the 168 who were killed.


They have a section of the museum which shows the investigation trying to catch the culprit who set off the bomb. Mcveigh, the man who parked the van containing the bomb outside the Murrah building, was caught in the first couple of days after the bombing, in Kanasa. He was pulled over by the police officer for a driving fault, so the police officer did not know he was responsible for the incident. However back in Oklahoma, a part of the car was recovered that was traced to McVeigh. Other evidence that was found, was the large quantities of raw materials that were used to create the bomb. The other eivdence that the FBI recovered was numerous. So this lead to the guilty verdict against McVeigh and therefore the eventual execution. 


Going through the museum it does make you wonder why someone would do something so heinous.