Four years ago, the US Secret Service planned security for the Democratic and Republican National Conventions—in Boston and New York City, respectively. As with every National Special Security Event (NSSE), Secret Service agents sat down with the police departments and other first responders in the local jurisdictions to design an appropriate security plan for the convention venues.

In 2008, the Secret Service will do it again as Denver, Colo., and St. Paul, Minn., host the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

When Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff designates an NSSE, the Secret Service takes the lead in security design, planning and implementation.

“It’s up to us to reach out to our partners in local, state and federal agencies, public safety officials in the city, county and state where that event happens to be, so that we can all work together to make a seamless plan,” Secret Service spokeswoman Kim Bruce told HSToday.

That said, the Secret Service does not just wait for input from event jurisdictions. It proactively develops the security plan itself.

“Planning takes everybody working together in their own specialties—everybody brings something different to the table,” Bruce remarked. “Everybody has to work together, but it’s the Secret Service’s responsibility to bring those people together and all of the assets together to make it a seamless plan so that it’s not fragmented.

“We don’t go out there and say, ‘Hey, guys what do you need?’ We go out there and we’re in charge of it. So it’s up to us to start contacting the local police department and the state police. We tell them what has worked in the past and we start from there. They’re working alongside us, but we’re still in charge of it,” she added.

Other federal agencies also provide assistance—the US Department of Homeland Security as a whole is responsible for incident management, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for response and recover operations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for incident investigation—but the Secret Service runs the show.

Democratic National Convention

Democrats will hold their national convention in Denver from Aug. 25 to 28 at the Pepsi Center. The Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) will not become directly involved in security planning for the event, but it will share information with security agencies responsible for protecting attendees, according to DNCC spokeswoman Natalie Wyeth.

“We’re pretty far removed from security and the security plan,” Wyeth told HSToday. “At the DNCC, we provide the different security entities and the city with information so they can develop the security plans. We’ll provide all of the details on bus routes, on hotels where the delegates may be staying, on traffic patterns, on program schedules and that kind of thing. The city and the various security entities will use that information to develop their security plan. That’s really the extent of our involvement at this juncture.”

On the local level, security implementation falls under the Denver Police Department, which works with the office of Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper to develop a plan under the direction of the Secret Service. Katherine Archuleta, Denver’s senior advisor on policy and initiatives, serves as the city lead for planning for the Democratic National Convention.