Protecting Soft Targets and Crowded Places

The protection of Soft Targets and Crowded Places (ST/CP) is a critical priority for the Bay Area UASI due to the region’s dense population centers, extensive transit networks, iconic public venues, and frequent large-scale events that inherently elevate risk. These publicly accessible locations—such as transportation hubs, entertainment districts, schools, healthcare facilities, and faith-based institutions—remain highly vulnerable to a wide range of threats, including domestic violent extremism, active assailant attacks, improvised explosive devices, hostile vehicle incursions, and emerging technologies like small, unmanned aircraft systems. FEMA emphasizes that safeguarding these spaces requires coordinated, regionwide action across planning, physical security, intelligence sharing, training, and rapid medical response.

In alignment with FEMA’s National Priority Area framework, the Bay Area UASI directs resources to close regional capability gaps identified through the THIRA/SPR process and to strengthen preparedness across jurisdictions. Investments in risk assessments, layered security measures, explosives detection, responder PPE, training, and multidisciplinary exercises collectively enhance the region’s ability to deter, detect, and respond to attacks at high-risk public venues. These efforts ensure that the Bay Area remains a national leader in protecting its residents, visitors, and critical civic spaces, while meeting federal expectations for reducing the consequences of terrorism in one of the country’s most complex and high-profile urban environments. 

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Equipment Procurements

  • Portable Mass Spectrometers

    The acquisition of six portable MX908 mass spectrometers significantly enhances the Bay Area’s ability to detect and rapidly respond to chemical, explosive, and hazardous substance threats in soft target environments. These devices provide high-sensitivity, field-deployable detection capabilities that allow law enforcement, fire, hazmat, and specialized teams to identify trace quantities of explosives, chemical warfare agents, toxic industrial chemicals, fentanyl and opioids, and other dangerous substances often associated with targeted attacks on public spaces. Their portability and rapid analysis make them especially valuable at locations with high foot traffic, limited screening infrastructure, and large gatherings where traditional laboratory-based testing is too slow or impractical.

    In the context of the Soft Targets and Crowded Places NPA, these mass spectrometers directly strengthen prevention and protection by enabling early threat recognition during planned events, suspicious-substance investigations, and pre-operational sweeps at venues such as transit stations, stadiums, shopping districts, and civic festivals. Faster, more accurate field identification reduces response times, limits public exposure, and prevents unnecessary evacuations or disruptions. These instruments also enhance regional interoperability by allowing multiple agencies to apply the same analytical capabilities during joint operations and by improving common operating picture development during potential terrorist incidents. Collectively, this equipment procurement closes critical capability gaps identified through the THIRA/SPR and provides a scalable, regional asset that improves the safety and resilience of the Bay Area’s most vulnerable public spaces. 

  • Wireless Multi-Gas Detectors

    In a region with dense transit corridors, iconic public venues, and frequent large gatherings, the ability to rapidly detect and assess hazardous atmospheric conditions is essential to protecting soft targets and crowded places. The procurement of seventeen Blackline Safety G7c handheld wireless multi-gas detectors for the Bay Area’s regional hazmat teams directly supports this mission by enabling real-time detection of toxic industrial chemicals, flammable gases, oxygen depletion, and other airborne hazards that may result from intentional attacks, accidental releases, or suspicious-substance incidents in publicly accessible spaces. These detectors provide responders with immediate situational awareness during deployments to transit hubs, stadiums, festivals, shopping districts, and other high-risk venues identified through the THIRA/SPR.

    Unlike traditional gas monitors, the G7c units incorporate live cellular connectivity, GPS location tracking, and automated alerting, allowing incident commanders and fusion center partners to maintain a common operating picture during fast-moving or dispersed events. This capability enhances operational coordination—one of FEMA’s core priorities for the ST/CP NPA—by ensuring that hazardous conditions are communicated instantly across agencies, reducing response time and enabling more informed decision-making during evacuations, shelter-in-place operations, or threat mitigation.

    By strengthening detection, monitoring, and safety operations in complex public environments, these detectors fill critical capability gaps, align with FEMA’s National Priority Area requirements, and bolster the Bay Area’s ability to prevent, protect against, and respond to chemical or atmospheric threats that could endanger residents, visitors, and critical community spaces. Collectively, this investment improves regional resilience and supports safer operations at the soft targets and crowded places most vulnerable to terrorism-related hazards. 

  • EOD Bomb Suits

    The acquisition of five Med-Eng 10 bomb suits for the Bay Area’s regional Explosive Ordinance Disposal teams directly strengthens the protection of soft targets and crowded places by enhancing the region’s ability to safely respond to suspected IEDs and explosive threats in high-risk public environments such as transit hubs, stadiums, entertainment districts, and large public gatherings. These advanced bomb suits provide critical blast, heat, fragmentation, and overpressure protection for bomb technicians tasked with approaching, assessing, and rendering safe explosive devices that could cause mass casualties in dense, publicly accessible locations. By improving responder survivability, enabling more effective on-scene mitigation, and reducing time required to secure a potentially hazardous venue, these suits help close THIRA/SPR-identified capability gaps and align directly with FEMA’s National Priority Area requirements. This investment enhances the region’s ability to prevent and mitigate IED-related attacks, thereby increasing the safety and resilience of the Bay Area’s residents, visitors, and critical community spaces. 

  • Chemical Identifiers

    The procurement of four FLIR Teledyne Griffin G510 GC/MS chemical identifiers for the Bay Area’s regional HazMat teams directly enhances the protection of soft targets and crowded places by providing rapid, laboratory-grade identification of chemical threats in dense public environments such as transit hubs, entertainment venues, commercial districts, and major events. These advanced, field-deployable instruments allow responders to quickly and accurately identify toxic industrial chemicals, chemical warfare agents, narcotics, and unknown substances that may be used in intentional attacks or suspicious-substance incidents targeting crowded spaces. By enabling faster hazard confirmation, improved situational awareness, and more informed protective actions—including evacuation, shelter-in-place decisions, and coordination with law enforcement and public health—this capability significantly reduces risk to the public. This investment aligns with FEMA’s National Priority Area requirements and addresses THIRA/SPR-identified gaps by strengthening the region’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to chemical threats, ultimately improving the safety and resilience of residents, visitors, and the Bay Area’s critical community spaces.