PRESS RELEASE:
The Kansas City Police security plan for the Major League Baseball All Star Game has received a military review from people who instruct U.S. Army officers how to review battle plans.
Instructors and students at the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth volunteered to analyze the plan and met Thursday with members of KCPD, Kansas City Fire and Emergency Management Departments, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Kansas City Royals at Kauffman Stadium to report their findings in a process called “Red Teaming.”
“We wanted them to find the things we didn’t think of and point out the vulnerabilities in the plan,” Major Rich Lockhart said.
The Red Team concept arose about six years ago from lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Retired Army Col. Steve Rotkoff, deputy director of the University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth. The Army found groupthink had taken over in a lot of situations, and an outside perspective was needed to really analyze military strategies.
“A Red-Teamer is someone who has been trained, educated and given the tools to serve as an in-house skeptic,” Rotkoff said.
That was exactly what police wanted going into the All Star game, Lockhart said – an outside perspective to find any holes in the security plan.
Five U.S. Army officers – majors and above – in the Red Team Course analyzed the All Star plan. Rotkoff said it was one of the few civilian plans they’ve ever reviewed.
“They confirmed for us this is a solid plan,” Lockhart said. “They made some really good suggestions; like that we should have a no-communications plan in the event radios and cell phones don’t work. We’re going to work on putting that together next week.”
