BOSTON — The events that transpired at last year's Boston Marathon have prompted local law enforcement officials to implement a plan they hope will prevent anything like last year's bombing from happening again, but some local security experts and civil liberties advocates are questioning their approach.
The increased police presence across the 26.2 mile marathon route will include bag searches, more than 100 video surveillances cameras, and over 400 heavily armed military police from the Massachusetts National Guard.
Officials have emphasized that this level of security is necessary but that their efforts will not intrude on the spectator experience along the marathon course.
"We are confident that the overall experience with runners and spectators will not be impacted and all will enjoy a fun, festive and family-oriented day," said Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Director Kurt Schwartz at a March 10 unveiling of security procedures.
Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, a frequent runner of the race, told the Associated Press that they want to keep the race course secure while maintaining the spirit associated with it. "We are going to have a lot of security, but we want to do it more low-key so we don't alarm people who might want to come," said Evans.
Marathon organizers and public safety officials are strongly encouraging people to not bring backpacks or bags to the race. Some attendees of the race will encounter security checkpoints along the route as well as bomb-sniffing dogs. Runners have been barred from bringing their personal items in backpacks and must use clear plastic bags instead.
Some longtime Boston Marathon traditions like Wellesley students kissing random runners along the marathon route will continue while others like the act of running the marathon as an unregistered participant, or as a bandit, will not.
Wellesley Deputy Police Chief Jack Pilecki said that officials in his town will do their best to persevere the race's traditions while enhancing safety.
"We're not planning on raining on their parade at all," Pilecki told the AP.
Massachusetts State Police Colonel Timothy Alben said that public safety officials do not want a security state feeling to envelope the marathon. "If we were going to put police officers every 10 feet along this marathon we'd have 30,000 not 3,000," said Alben.
"This is a great tradition in Massachusetts and Boston and across the country and we want to preserve and maintain that experience. At the same time we're providing comprehensive security," said Alben.
Police have declined disclose all of their security plans for Monday but they will have many uniformed and plainclothes officers across the course as well as several helicopters monitoring the racecourse.
Tom Nolan, a 27-year veteran of the Boston Police Department and chair of the SUNY-Platsburgh criminal justice department, sees some of the planned security efforts for Monday and cringes.
"We're going to see an unprecedented, hyper-exaggerated overkill response that is all out of proportion to the circumstances," said Nolan.
Nolan criticized the idea of warrantless bag searches on public streets as "illegal and unconstitutional" while warning against this becoming a normal occurrence.
"This is a public place, these are public streets. People have the absolute right to travel them without being stopped and searched by police. Just because there was a tragic event doesn't give the police the authority to unilaterally suspend the US Constitution and the Fourth Amendment," said Nolan.
Nolan raised additional concerns to the number of out-of-town police that will be in Boston who are unfamiliar with the area. The out-of-town response was what added to the confusion during the Watertown manhunt, another police action that Nolan was troubled by.
"It was outrageous. This will become the norm if we allow it to occur and fail to raise objections about it," said Nolan.
Nolan said the majority of the security for this event comes in the form of intelligence gathering and that much of the visible security during the day is just a show to make people feel safer. Officials said at the March 10 briefing that they have no specific intelligence about a possible threat at this year's marathon but they are continuing to monitor the situation.
"Most of this is a boosterish attempt to convey something about this city that we venerate our public safety workers in ways that are out of proportion to the often good work they do. When we lionize people like this, we lose our right to question what they do around our rights and civil liberties," said Nolan.
Longtime attorney and civil liberties activist Harvey Silverglate criticized the increased security measures at this year's marathon, calling them "a complete overreaction."
"I don't think that the civilian law enforcement authorities now can shed the military mentality that they have taken on. This country, for a good reason, has a law on the books that says you cannot have the military performing law enforcement activities," said Silverglate.
Silverglate was very critical of last year's shelter-in-place order and the house-to-house searches that were conducted in the aftermath of the manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers. Many of the measures the police will take on Monday, Silverlglate thinks, are simply there to make people feel safer without actually making them safer, while at the same time encroaching on their freedoms.
Northeastern University criminal justice professor James Allan Fox thinks that some of the moves being made by police on Monday will do little to actually prevent a terrorist attack because there is no longer an element of surprise in the location, a key element terrorists look for when planning an attack. "Terrorists often capitalize on the element of surprise, which is why the odd thing is, whenever we have an incident we fortify the places that have already been attacked, thinking lightning might strike twice," said Fox.
According to Fox, inconspicuous security measures are often a more efficient deterrent than an open and visible security presence.
"When we go to great lengths to prevent something, we are impacting our own lives in the process and this is something the terrorists revel in," said Fox.
Still, Fox thinks the nature of race will not be diminished significantly by the stepped up police measures.
"I think they're doing the best they can to maintain it as a celebration and as a positive event. It's not like they're going to put everybody behind a sheet of glass, they're not creating a fortress," said Fox.
Boston Marathon officials are expecting 36,000 entrants in Monday's Marathon, that's the highest number of runners since 1996 when 38,708 participated in the centennial edition of the race.