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In Depth: Democratic Party Convention Security

Boston's big political party in 2004 took a lot of planning. During a six-month period, CSO followed U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Scott Sheafe as he and others developed a security plan tailored to make the best of a bad situation.

But the Secret Service adamantly denied that resources were an issue. Whatever the case, at the last minute, Boston Mayor Menino and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg pleaded with Congress and secured an additional $25 million in security funds for each citydoubling the total funding received from Congress to secure the conventions. More than half of the $95 million spent on the DNC paid for security.

The cost of security, and its many inconveniences, ate into the windfall that was supposed to pour into Boston along with the Democratic delegates. The Beacon Hill Institute at Boston's Suffolk University published a study in March 2004 that estimated a DNC benefit to the economy of $121.6 million. Two weeks later, after factoring in disruptions and productivity losses caused by security measures, the institute revised its estimate to project a loss of $12.8 million.

City boosters insisted that the event still would net the city $150 million; they claimed the naysayers were plagued by the same pessimism afflicting Red Sox fans. "We as a community oftentimes are most critical of ourselves," said Paul Guzzi, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, in a telephone interview when asked about the Beacon Hill Institute's estimates and the public backlash. "Other cities would love to have this convention. Whether it's about our baseball team [or some other situation], there are always skeptics. The skepticism is endemic to the culture here."

Whatever the reason, feelings about the convention did seem endemic. A survey on The Boston Globe website in May revealed that 87.4 percent of respondents said the convention wasn't worth it. A security director at a public forum called the DNC "a planned disaster." And the closer the convention came, the more skittish residents grew.

"A lot of my job is trying to keep people reasonably calm about this," said Bonnie Michelman, director of police, security and outside services for Massachusetts General Hospital, located half a mile from the FleetCenter (as such, it was encompassed in the security plan for the convention). Michelman spent months working on elaborate plans for getting staff members to work, minimizing the number of patients who would need to visit the hospital during convention week and preparing for the possibility that the hospital could have an influx of emergency patients—even if only from heat stroke.

"I keep reminding [everyone that] a lot of good people are doing great work on planning this, and it's 96 hours of inconvenience. That's it," she said. "I'm trying to keep it in perspective."