DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM The U.S. Postal Service in Hawaii recently hired R. Doug Aton as its emergency preparedness manager. Surrounded on Thursday by packages at the Airport Main Station, Aton previously served as the Honolulu Civil Defense Agency administrator and is a former assistant police chief.

Aton readies for
any emergency

The ex-HPD officer has been hired
to help the post office prepare
for all sorts of disasters

R. Doug Aton The U.S. Postal Service has hired R. Doug Aton as Honolulu District emergency preparedness manager, a newly created position.. His background includes: » Service with the Honolulu Police Department for 32 years, the last five years as the assistant chief of the administrative, central patrol and investigative bureaus. He also served as the contracted security director for the Asian Development Bank's 2001 annual meeting at the Hawaii Convention Center, and as administrator of the Honolulu Civil Defense Agency for the past three years. » Executive director of the Office of Waikiki Development.

Question: When people think of a postal security emergency, many think box bomb or anthrax letter.

Answer: After 9/11 and the anthrax scare, I think the U.S. Postal Service has done a lot to address concerns of a biohazard chemical weapon by the terrorists. They have responded very well by having a hazard-detection system installed. One of our roles as local first responders is to coordinate with the fire department, police department, health department and others. There's also physical security of the postal facilities in the Honolulu District, which encompasses the entire state.

Q: What does that entail?

A: Homeland Security Presidential Directive No. 5 is the driving force. It calls for standardization, interoperability and a general template for any kind of response to a threat or emergency that might impact our islands. We're trying to standardize every piece of equipment so we can interoperate with first responders for one thing. ID cards, infrastructure accessibility, that type of thing. It's going to require coordination and assurance we comply with the National Incident Management System.

Q: Are all postal districts hiring preparedness directors?

A: Yes. Some states have already hired their emergency preparedness director. I was just hired three weeks ago. It's a steep learning curve for me. To the credit of the Honolulu District, they are certainly up to speed on a biohazard detection system, but there's peripheral issues that I have to address: coordinating with other agencies.

Q:What's the status of the Honolulu biohazard-detection system?

A: It's in the initial phases of the installation process. We still have to coordinate the system with our first responders, of which we've already done a tabletop exercise. But there's still some issues that have to be addressed, of which I can't get into right now. But we will certainly address those concerns.

Q: What was a recent postal security emergency in Honolulu?

A: Right after 9/11, there were the anthrax scares and that's when the Fire Department established a hazardous-material unit that was involved in decontamination of victims, and the state lab got involved in the analysis to determine whatever they had picked up at these sites were, in fact, anthrax. We had quite a number of cases in which people thought they've been affected by anthrax. None of them tested positive for anthrax.

Q: Sounds like a pretty vital job.

A: That's something that has been overlooked in my job as administrator. We did a lot of assessment planning and vulnerability assessment for the City and County. The post office and what they do has been overlooked as critical infrastructure and critical service for the American public. It's kind of overwhelming how critical this aspect of service is. I'm three weeks old at this, so it's an immense cultural orientation for me. The Postal Service itself and how it does jobs so well is something I have to learn. The Honolulu District has won award after award for what they do best, and that's distribution of mail.

Q: Without giving away something important, what needs to be improved in the local postal service?

A: I think after seeing what happened in the Indonesian tsunami disaster, we have to assure that we address an all-hazards approach -- hurricane, tsunami, flooding, anything that's going to stop operations in any of our facilities. We need an emergency operations center that can mitigate any of these. That aspect is something that has to be addressed, and soon, before the next disaster. The disaster center is currently being worked on and that's something I'm working on as well.

Q: In this new job, what's your biggest personal fear?

A: I think clearly the anthrax scare brought up a lot of issues. And those still haven't been addressed. Biohazard doesn't mean anthrax alone. It can be any number of biohazards. We are preparing for what we experienced in the past, but there are a whole slew of biohazards that we can adjust our mechanisms to address. Terrorists being terrorists, they can think of all kinds of other ways to attack us.

Q: You can't just react.

A: You have to admit that terrorists are very ingenious at coming up with new ways of attacking us, so you've gotta be ahead. It's a constant quest to stay one step ahead.

Q: What about balancing postal privacy concerns?

A: It's the same balancing act that transportation security is trying to do at the airport. There's going to be some inconvenience with all the safety. We're certainly looking at balancing all privacy rights with postal service, but if it jeopardizes safety for the general public, then we have to incon- venience people to some extent but still with the assurance of privacy.