KOMO 4 News Follow-Up: Security At Key Arena Flunks Again

Earlier this month, KOMO 4 News examined security at places where tens of thousands of people gather -- including Key Arena. After Army anti-terrorism experts found disturbing security breaches, managers promised security would improve.

KOMO 4 News went back with the Army experts to see if those promises were kept, and once again, they discovered alarming problems.

Hidden camera video tells the alarming tale. A knock on the locked doors is all it takes for a helpful Seattle Center worker to let two strangers inside Key Arena to wander at will.

The two strangers saw several Seattle Center employees. They even talked to a few of them and checked out the entire arena.

No one asked them who they were. No one asked what their business was. No one contacted security.

The pair left after wandering around the Key for more than 15 minutes.

"No one seemed suspicious of what we were doing there," says Todd Hahn, "and we didn't carry ourselves as being suspicious we just walked in as John Q. Public."

The two strangers are anti-terrorism experts, trained by the Army to test security at federal facilities. It's standard practice to re-visit a facility after 30 days. So KOMO 4 News outfitted them with a hidden camera to re-test the security at Key Arena.

The Key flunked.

"Going in again with a package this size," says Hahn referring to the fanny pack carrying the hidden camera, "we could have left it anywhere and walked out. Remote detonator, who knows what could happen."

The security failure is particularly disturbing because just a month earlier, Army Captain Mike Buscher conducted a similar experiment at the Key. He and a colleague had access to luxury suites, got into the kitchens -- anywhere they wanted.

At that time, the Seattle Center Management thanked us for opening their eyes and assured us things would change.

"It's pretty disturbing and actually frustrating at this point," says Seattle Center Deputy Director Robert Nellams. "We've done a lot of work, we've communicated a lot with our staff and we haven't done the job."

In fact, after our first test, Seattle Center sent all staff a memo on security entitled "What You Should Know."

It says no one gets into Key Arena without proper identification and in bold print adds, "no exceptions."

If a worker sees someone without I.D., they must escort them to a check-in location, to an exit, or as a last resort, call security. That was followed up with an employee newsletter article also addressing heightened security.

And still, one worker let our anti-terrorism experts in and several others spoke to them. But not one of about a dozen employees stopped or questioned the two strangers.

Employees clearly haven't gotten the message.

"It's unfortunate that they're able to gain that kind of access, it truly is," says Captain Buscher. "Key Arena's made some real large steps in the right direction, I hope they continue to do so but they have to understand that security is an ever-evolving program. They can't put things in place and expect it to run itself."

Deputy Director Nellams knows that. "We're gonna make sure that this becomes standard procedure," he said. "That we go over this, over and over and over until we eliminate these breaches."

Center management says it is trying to find out who is responsible for the lapses we caught on camera, and re-iterating with its staff that failure to follow security procedures has consequences. They could even be fired.

"They should know...that they may be subject to disciplinary action if they don't follow the procedures," Nellams said.

The first time we did this story, Seattle Center responded by putting up items like heavy planters that block access to the Key Arena plaza and beef up security.

Once again, managers are taking the information we uncovered and using it to make its security better. Because Seattle Center wants its patrons to know, when they go to Key Arena, they are safe.

Bottom line: So do we.