D.C. police chief: 'We have to be very alert'
 |  D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey |
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Justice Department urged Americans on Wednesday to be vigilant because of intelligence indicating that al Qaeda was planning a major attack in the next few months.
One potential target mentioned was Saturday's dedication of the National World War II Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. City officials say more than 140,000 people are expected to attend. CNN's Anderson Cooper discussed the city's security plan with D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey.
COOPER: Have your preparations changed in any way after yesterday's announcement by the FBI and Justice Department?
RAMSEY: No. Actually, we've been planning this event for quite some time. The U.S. Park Police is actually the lead agency. My department just acts in support. But there are a lot of agencies working together.
I wasn't aware the news conference was going to take place, but the information presented was not new to those of us in law enforcement.
COOPER: So, when they put forward photos like they did yesterday, those seven photos of people and say be on the lookout, is that something that filters down to your department? I mean, do you suddenly get those photos and carry them around? Or is it not that specific?
RAMSEY: No, we got the photographs late yesterday.
In fact, we're printing a bulletin up now that we can distribute to all of our members and make sure that they are in our database.
COOPER: I understand the D.C. police operate on levels from 1 to 5, and that you're at level 1 right now, which is actually the lowest level. Does that mean you are sort of not all that concerned about an imminent attack?
RAMSEY: Actually, we just recently changed to more closely mirror the federal color code system, so we're actually at what we consider to be yellow.
But we're always at an elevated level here in Washington, and we have been since 9/11. So, there's not a drastic change in what we do when things like this come up.
COOPER: Obviously another big celebration coming forward is July 4. Are preparations for that any different from this weekend?
RAMSEY: Actually, the preparations for that are fairly similar to what you'll see this weekend. We'll have more people actually for the Fourth of July. They get close to a million people down on the Mall for that particular event.
So, we'll be working very closely with the Park Police again for that event, and we don't anticipate any problems.
And as you mentioned earlier, we have not received any specific information, but, obviously, we have to be very alert.
