In South Florida, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw is the man in charge of regional domestic security for Homeland Security.
He said his team is constantly monitoring intelligence information. And if there was a threat, which he says there isn’t, he would be the first to know.
“We’re pretty much being vigilant all the time,” said Sheriff Bradshaw. ”When you begin to let your guard down that’s when something bad going to happened.”
While the recent attacks in Turkey and Germanyare a constant reminder of the potential for terror anywhere, Sheriff Bradshaw said his team is constantly monitoring the intelligence from their in-house fusion center.
“We don’t have to adjust because we’re looking at things and making sure that the areas that need to be hardened are hardened. And the areas that might be vulnerable, we’re looking at those and saying what can we do to make people more safe there.”
The soon-to-be four-term sheriff said this is not a time for panic but continued awareness.
“Our biggest assets are the people that are out there,” said Sheriff Bradshaw. “We gather as much intelligence information as we can, so if there’s any threat to South Florida we will know about it as soon as the government knows about it.”
With each attack, people feel the impact no matter where they are even if the attack is thousands of miles away.
“It could be Berlin yesterday it could be in Chicago tomorrow,” said Marvin Badler, a security expert and former security for Israeli airline El Al.
Badler says awareness is also key, but people can’t let these incidents change the way you live.
“Live your life. Don’t let terror get to you because that’s what they want to do to you.”