How Casinos Secure Against Active Shooters And Other Threats

John Choate, former executive director of security for Wynn and Encore casinos, tells NPR's Robert Siegel about Las Vegas casinos' security measures and how they address the risk of active shooters.

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

What kind of security is there or should there be at a Las Vegas casino hotel? Well, John Choate was until a few weeks ago executive director of security at Wynn and Encore. Those are Las Vegas resorts owned by Steve Wynn's company. And after the shootings at San Bernardino, Calif., Mr. Wynn hired the former Navy SEAL to upgrade security. Mr. Choate joins us from Las Vegas. Welcome to the program, Sir.

JOHN CHOATE: Thank you, Mr. Siegel. I appreciate being here.

SIEGEL: If you could briefly sum up, what are the security tools that a Las Vegas resort would have? You have the guards, who are who?

CHOATE: Well, they have to be 21 years of age or older. And then I would say a substantial number of the security guard cadre within Las Vegas proper are former military, former law enforcement. But then you have several different iterative supporting entities for any security system - you know, the canine detection teams. You have constellations of camera systems, gunshot detection, metal detectors. It's really quite extraordinary.

SIEGEL: Mr. Choate, let me ask you about something you said at a meeting of Las Vegas hotel executives earlier this year. You praised security at Las Vegas hotels, but you also cited the example of Disney Resorts installing metal detectors as proof, in your words, that security can boost profits, not just costs. You said every single day from when they installed them, Disney's attendance has gone up because people were actually not going because of the fear that they had.

Have Las Vegas hotels installed metal detectors? Have Wynn resorts installed them, or did they fear that it would not look hospitable in the hospitality industry?

CHOATE: There are metal detectors and other detection items that do exist. And that is a necessary component really no different, Mr. Siegel, than going to the airport. Because Las Vegas' success is predicated on the hospitality industry here, if you don't put in place those measures, I'm not entirely sure what the runway looks like for...

SIEGEL: But do you mean - do I have you right, though, saying that at at least either the Wynn or the Encore, the places that you consulted with, that if a man were to bring 10 weapons into the hotel to his room, those would all pass through a metal detector at some point?

CHOATE: I'm really not at liberty to discuss this particular (laughter) issue. But I can tell you at least for the properties that I've consulted at, that their ability to be able to detect anomalies such as somebody bringing 10 firearms into a location is quite robust.

SIEGEL: So as you've heard the news today, were you thinking, boy, I hope from what we've done that this shouldn't have happened at a Wynn Resort? If this happened at one of ours, we would have detected this.

CHOATE: As awful as it is to say that, yes, I'm happy that - obviously very happy it did not happen. I would also be shocked if it happened at the Wynn.

SIEGEL: I've read on the website of a Las Vegas law firm that while patrons of Las Vegas hotels are free to carry concealed or open-carry weapons on the strip, legally you cannot carry a gun into a Las Vegas casino if that casino has rules forbidding concealed weapons.

CHOATE: I don't believe that there is any property, at least not in Las Vegas, that allows for either open or concealed carry. All properties in Las Vegas resorts are private property. So while this is a concealed carry state, the hotels themselves, by being private property, do not - specifically do not allow for the carrying of firearms on the property.

SIEGEL: But if somebody comes in with a big roller bag and takes it up to their room or even has staff help them with it, that you wouldn't necessarily look inside, would you, at these hotels?

CHOATE: It depends on the hotel. The issue is - is that the person is not going to walk in in tactical gear through the front entrance.

SIEGEL: If I check into the hotel the first time through the front door at the front desk and I put bags in my room, thereafter, might I arrive from the garage and bypass all that and just go straight up from my car to - by elevator up to my floor?

CHOATE: Yes, yes.

SIEGEL: So the future gunman may have entered the hotel without anything that would arouse any suspicion or violate any rule but thereafter might have been able to move things up to his room covertly.

CHOATE: That is correct.

SIEGEL: Mr. Choate, thank you very much for talking with us.

CHOATE: Thank you, Sir. I appreciate your time.

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