Posted on 04/01/2014 10:32:01 AM PDT by csvset
NORFOLK
A civilian police officer has been placed on leave and the Navy is boosting security measures at bases from Virginia to Maine after last week's shooting aboard the destroyer Mahan.
The guard who allowed the shooter onto Norfolk Naval Station was a federal police officer, not a sailor or a contractor, officials said Monday.
Everyone entering a base in the service's mid-Atlantic region using a transportation worker credential - the kind Jeffrey Savage showed before he shot and killed a sailor - now must be checked against a federal crime database.
Until last week, those checks weren't mandatory. Navy policy permitted truck drivers to enter with the credential and proof of their business on the base.
It isn't clear why Savage was allowed in. The 35-year-old convicted felon had no legitimate reason to be at Norfolk Naval Station on March 24, according to authorities.
Driving a tractor-trailer cab, he used a Transportation Worker Identification Credential, or TWIC card, to get past a main gate and a checkpoint at Pier 1, where the Mahan is moored. About 11:20 p.m., Savage boarded the ship. After a female sailor standing guard stopped him on the deck, he managed to take her gun. He used it to shoot and kill 24-year-old Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Mayo, a Navy guard who was patrolling the pier and rushed to intervene.
The new security measures, which the Navy said started Thursday, call for the names of all TWIC card users to be checked against a federal database, the National Crime Information Center. Base guards are turning away anyone with an outstanding warrant, a felony conviction in the past 10 years or a violent misdemeanor in the past five. Habitual offenders, sex offenders and people with drug or larceny convictions also aren't being allowed in, officials said.
Criteria to obtain a TWIC card are less strict.
Already, drivers are lamenting longer waits to get on base.
"Some people have been turned away," said Beth Baker, a spokeswoman for the Navy's mid-Atlantic region.
The new measures would have kept out Savage, who served prison time for a drug offense and voluntary manslaughter; he shot and killed a friend during a 2005 argument.
The Navy also has increased random checks, such as vehicle searches, officials said. The changes were ordered by the region's commander, Rear Adm. Dixon Smith.
In addition to an investigation being conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Navy has launched an inquiry that will "explore in detail how (Savage) accessed the base, including whether the gate sentry complied with access control procedures in effect at the time," the service said in a Monday news release.
Officials declined to say whether any Mahan sailors had been disciplined. It was the ship's job to staff the Pier 1 checkpoint.
Officials have not given a motive or said why they believe Savage was on the base - if they know. They've said only that they don't think he planned the attack, and he walked onto the Mahan unarmed.
Savage only recently had become a truck driver; he got his TWIC card earlier this year. The credentials are issued by the Transportation Security Administration and allow unescorted access to secure ports and military installations.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, has not responded to repeated inquiries about the TWIC program.
Savage's body was transferred from Portsmouth Naval Medical Center to a funeral home Friday. His funeral is today.
The Navy is planning a memorial service for Mayo on April 7 at Norfolk Naval Station.
Pilot writer Bill Sizemore contributed to this report.
Corinne Reilly, 757-446-2277, corinne.reilly@pilotonline.com
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, has not responded to repeated inquiries about the TWIC program.
Of course the Barney Fife jobs program has nothing to say.
The guard who allowed the shooter onto Norfolk Naval Station was a federal police officer, not a sailor or a contractor, officials said Monday.
My experience with the base police? More than once I'd see them asleep in their car. Of course that was decades ago, I'm sure they're professionals now, eh?
RIP Petty Officer Mayo.
What’s a “Federal Police Officer?”
Why do we have civilian guards on military bases? The last time I was on a base (Quantico, about 10 years ago) there were only military guards at the gates.
Civil Service cop for lack of a better description.
“Savage boarded the ship. After a female sailor standing guard stopped him on the deck, he managed to take her gun. He used it to shoot and kill 24-year-old Petty Officer 2nd Class Mark Mayo, a Navy guard who was patrolling the pier and rushed to intervene.”
It isn't clear why Savage was allowed in. The 35-year-old convicted felon had no legitimate reason to be at Norfolk Naval Station on March 24, according to authorities.Here's my question: WTF IS THE TSA DOING, issuing a TWIC card to a convicted felon?...
Savage only recently had become a truck driver; he got his TWIC card earlier this year. The credentials are issued by the Transportation Security Administration and allow unescorted access to secure ports and military installations.
Apparently, it's against the law to attempt to discover whether a job applicant has a criminal background because doing so is discriminatory against African-Americans.
Someone needs to checkout the person who granted the perp a security clearance. He obviously does not qualify. Heads need to roll so as to make the point.
Women at sea is a whole different issue. I wonder how much training she had? I wonder how much training in disarming people the perp had while he was in jail? Perhaps zero, perhaps a bit. We’ll probably never know.
He was one of Holder’s tribe. They are exempt from background checks.
It's been going on for awhile now, before Obama. Military downsizing.
I've been in the navy more than a decade now and I've seen it first hand. Lots of jobs that used to be good shore duty for sailors are now getting contracted out to civilians. Admin jobs at personnel offices, cooks in the mess halls, health care workers in the base clinics and hospitals, instructors in the schoolhouses, even people working at the armories and weapons stations. And, yes, the gate guards. There's thousands of civilians on a typical military base these days doing jobs that were formerly performed by uniformed servicemembers.
I was aware of the civilianization of some jobs, but having civilians with guns guarding service members with guns makes even less sense than most government stupidity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.