Inauguration security

Inauguration security teams ready to prevent terrorism, control protests

From protesters planning to block access to security checkpoints to the risk of a terrorist driving a truck through a large crowd, the list of potential Inauguration Day disasters is long, but law enforcement agencies are prepared.

In the lead-up to Friday’s presidential swearing-in ceremony and inaugural parade, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said authorities are not aware of any specific, credible threat to the events.

But with a growing trend of lone-wolf attacks, he said, special precautions are being taken to prevent the kinds of truck attacks that killed dozens last year in Nice, France, and in Berlin.

Large vehicles such as dump trucks and buses will form barriers to strengthen the security perimeter.

“The hard perimeter areas this year in light of the current threat environment — which includes Nice and Germany — will be more heavily fortified against unauthorized vehicles by dump trucks, heavy trucks, trucks with cement, buses and things of the like,” Mr. Johnson said. “That is a precaution that we are doubling down in particular this inauguration.”

An estimated 700,000 to 900,000 people will descend on the National Mall to watch Donald Trump be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.