10 Crazy Security Features in The White House

[Music] with all the talk of Wars and fighting recently it's only natural to get a little worried and the unfortunate truth is that not everyone has access to great security for their homes it can even start to make you wonder about the amount of protection the rich and elite receive and more specifically the most powerful person in the United States the White House has security features that put the rest of the country's homes to shame if your house has even one of these features you should feel pretty safe so without further ado here are the crazy security features in the White House before we learn how safe the most famous home in the United States is be sure and click to subscribe to our channel it's the only secure way to get new and interesting videos air defense there are tons of stories and urban legends about the defense of the White House and due to public safety concerns nobody the extreme inner circle will ever know the truth but a few things we definitely do know are that the United States defense budget Dwarfs all other countries in the world and the White House is one of the most protected buildings in the world so after hearing all of that finding out that there are anti-aircraft missiles on the roof isn't surprising at all there are even stories about the White House and surrounding areas being protected by an unseen laser weapon as a way to protect against an airplane attack but let's talk about what we know for certain the area above and around the White House is a no-fly zone that means no aircraft can come in the vicinity unless given special permission if anyone gets near the area not only are there Jets on standby but they also have an advanced warning system this visual warning system shines red and green alternating lights that provide a crystal-clear warning to the pilot this isn't being done to blind or hurt the pilot however it's used to simply to tell the plane that they have made a huge mistake in to turn back immediately infrared sensors the next security feature on our list isn't super high-tech in fact it's not even that new at all the design behind infrared sensors have actually been used in alarm system since the 1970s but the reason for its inclusion on this list is the sheer size of the application although the exact details aren't known we do know that the White House lawn is an 18 acre plot of land that means that their infrared motion sensors placed around the entirety of the property just waiting for someone to trigger them it's also said that there are pressure trigger alarms placed under the grounds as well so if any bad guy thinks they can avoid the sensor like they're playing a Metal Gear Solid game they need to think again the biggest issue with using a motion sensor outdoors however is the likelihood of causing a false alarm the way infrared works is that it detects human heat sources across its point-of-view but unfortunately rapidly changing weather conditions can sometimes cause an error in the system however the White House likely experiences very little mistakes with there's a stay of the very latest and expensive version of the system bulletproof windows now we're going from detection to protection every good security system has got to have a way to detect intruders there's no debate there so what happens when somebody is able to either sneak by or attack from a distance in those ultra rare cases it's incredibly important to be protected by the latest technologies take this example from November of 2012 a disturbed man from Idaho shot twice from a high-powered rifle into the White House one bullet missed entirely but the other hit its mark which is shocking to find out once you learned that he was over 2,000 feet away the only issue for this would-be attacker was that the window he hit was reinforced ballistic glass this White House Windows security feature was impossible to detect from the outside luckily for all involved the President and Vice President were both out of the country at the time ballistic glass has been installed in the White House in one form or another for years but according to reports was not sufficient from his earliest 1994 after the incident in Oklahoma City the White House and other government facilities have been beefed up to protect against threats the bunker even with all the security features and measures taken to prevent disaster the president has got to have a fail-safe which brings us to the next item on our list the White House bunker we know that in 1987 a secret tunnel was built during the Ronald Reagan presidency to take him directly to an elevator leading to safety she was able to access this by pressing a hidden wall panel that would reveal a staircase leading to the elevator and years before that Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a tunnel leading to the basement of the Treasury Center to protect him from air raids and George W Bush was actually photographed in the presidential Emergency Operations Center shortly after the events of September 11th but even though an underground safety net has been used for years in 2010 a White House construction project had some people curious it was speculated that the project described as a infrastructure systems replacement was actually a new high-tech bunker the project took over two years to complete and was said to be a security related construction oddly enough the exact purpose of this project is still unknown today making the bunker theory carry a lot of weight concrete barriers and closings sometimes the best home defense is the most practical take this next item on our list for example some might equate it to kings and queens of medieval times constructing moats around their castles and they wouldn't be that far off building concrete barriers around the White House has the same purpose as a castle moat to keep invaders out where in medieval times they were protecting against battering rams in modern times they're protecting against ramming cars with concerns about truck bombings taking place overseas the White House did a full all of its entrance in 1983 in in May of 2017 they took the extra step of permanently closing the sidewalks around the White House because hundreds of people crowded the sidewalk everyday it made it difficult to identify security threats the sidewalk near the South Lawn was a popular tourist area to take photos because of these closings they'll have to take pictures 25 yards further away well those always zoom I guess it might be frustrating if you've taken the time out of your day to go and visit the White House only to find that you can't even get close to it but if it's in the name of safety then we guess that's fair enough the Secret Service the next security measure isn't a technological wonder or sturdy barricade it's the highly trained members of the Secret Service shockingly there are over 3,000 special agents and 1,300 uniformed officers that make up the agency originally formed in 1865 the first purpose of the Secret Service was to investigate forged currency in the Treasury Department by 1902 they had established full-time protection of the president a practice that continues to this day and it's not just the POTUS that gets protected they also provide security for the president's family the Vice President presidential candidates and a lot more as part of their oath Secret Service agents are sworn to protect the president with their life and in some cases they were forced to take action in 1950 for example an agent named Leslie Coffelt was taken down while aiding president harry s truman several other agents have been shot through the years upholding their duty to their country there have recently been more security breaches than normal proving that even the most highly trained agents are human it's a good thing the White House has such a vast system of security features to back them up the fence the very first security measure of the White House has evolved more than any other in fact this man-made feature is likely the oldest defense system in the world in 1801 our third President Thomas Jefferson had a post and rail fence built around the White House in the year since that event America has grown and changed but the fence has remained standing as security concerns grew the famous White House fence has changed to keep up with the times for example in 1833 the fence was updated to a heavy wrought iron fence that ran along the top of a stone wall later it was updated to iron to control crowds that gathered outside the home and eventually it was replaced with steel and fitted with anti climb spikes on top it's interesting to review the history of the fence and follow along with the history of the United States every time the US upped its defense budget it seemed as if the wall was modified as well and to add to that a modification was approved for 2018 that will change the wall yet again it will be equipped with anti climb and intrusion detection technology and stand around 11 feet tall that's adding an additional four feet no matter what the changes are in the country the fence around the White House is here to stay people screaming and food tasters like a lot of items on this list certain features were added to the White House defense due to changes in the world and after the events of 9/11 this security measure was smartly added the White House began to scream all people entering the building by many methods they now use extensive background checks to ensure individuals aren't entering for nefarious reasons they also subject any person entering the property to Magneto meter screening which is just a fancy way of saying a metal detector and that's not all it makes sense for all people to be checked but there's another way that potential bad guys could affect the people inside as well and that is through food entering the building for hundreds of years people in power have used food tasters to make sure they weren't being sabotage and the practice still continued to this day in fact there was a report in 2013 in which then President Obama refused to eat at an event because his taste tester wasn't present Secret Service members also take great links to make sure the president's food preparation is clear from tampering they are aided by the fact that each chef and cook that makes the president's meals are extensively background-checked as well sometimes the best security features are a mix of the old and new drone warfare the final item on our list is an example of the White House security evolving over time after all if you don't stay modern you open yourself up to disaster by now you know that the White House isn't vulnerable from above and it also can't be penetrated by foot or by vehicle but with the invention of the drone Secret Service agents have to worry about objects that can avoid the high altitude security while remaining above the ground level defenses to this point in January of 2015 a drone actually crashed on the White House lawn although it turned out to just be a hobbyist and no real threat the security team was forced to spring into action to avoid another encounter and what better way to combat drones than to fight fire with fire so the Secret Service now employs drones of their own that survey the White House property these counter drones exist to deactivate or destroy any drone that comes into the restricted area as laws regarding flying drones continue to change and adapt look for the United States to also change their methods as well and that's not all in August of 2017 the Secret Service began to test a new type of surveillance drone that will fly 300 to 400 feet above the president whenever they are outdoors this would mean that the POTUS has a circle of protection around them at all times we've come a long way from Thomas Jefferson's fence that brings us to the end of our look into the White House of security make sure you check out our other videos on the hub to see more interesting places of the world and a lot more and if you want a home as secure as the White House you better start running for this see you next time

Channel: TheHUB

Views: 7,809,713

Rating: 4.4377546 out of 5

Keywords: whitehouse, white, house, president, security, feature, fence, secret service, lasers, radar, glass, drones, budget, defence, technology, guarded, heavily guarded, protection

Id: _NQCTzUgI8Y

Length: 12min 47sec (767 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 31 2017