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The FBI plans to beef up its local cadre of agents from 400 to 550 and send in its newly formed 50-member hostage-rescue team. The California Highway Patrol will fatten its regional 1,200-member force by 800 officers and 250 cars to help escort athletes in buses and dignitaries in 5 motorcades as they cross various county lines. In addition, 600 Secret Service agents and about 175 bodyguards from the State Department's Office of Security will hover around 3 heads of state, foreign luminaries and their families throughout the Games.
At Los Angeles International Airport, the U.S. Customs Service will add 100 inspectors to its local 180 person force to speed the entry of foreign visitors and check for weapons. To expedite the investigation of suspected terrorists, U.S. Attorney Robert Bonner has assembled a round-the-clock team of eight federal magistrates especially for the Olympics. These officials will be able to issue instant search warrants and authorize wiretaps. They will have tape recorders at home so that assistant U.S. attorneys who are busy at distant locations or stuck in traffic can call in and get the rarely used telephonic search warrant a temporary authorization that will hold up in court until the proper paperwork can be prepared.
Haunted by the memory of the Munich Games in 1972, when members of the Palestinian Black September Movement invaded the Olympic Village and killed eleven Israeli athletes, the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee (L.A.O.O.C.) has taken special measures to protect the teams' living quarters. At two of the three Olympic Villages—on the campuses of the University of Southern California and the University of California at Los Angeles — the committee has erected three concentric rings of eight-foot-high mesh fence. The middle one is wired with intrusion-detection devices, installed by the Pentagon, that sends out an alarm when a potential terrorist (or late-night reveler) approaches. The precautions cover a wide range: nine video-arcade games in Fluor Tower at U.S.C. will be removed to prevent terrorists or pranksters from hot-wiring an explosion.
With most of the Olympic sites located in his jurisdiction, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates has canceled vacations for his 6,900 officers, who will work up to 72 hours a week protecting the Villages, policing the streets and working inside the arenas. He has spent $800,000 on new equipment, including submachine guns with silencers and shoulder-held rifles for the department's crack SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team. One new acquisition: "Felix," a radio-directed robot capable of chugging up to suspicious objects and investigating them at a safe distance from people.