APD is now on the hunt for a group of cyber-idiots who decided it was a good idea to break into the Albuquerque Zoo and play Dr. Doolittle with the animals there. Of course, they couldn't resist the urge to document their misadventure and post photos of themselves on Facebook.
Albuquerque police say they are investigating a group of young adults who posted pictures on Facebook showing themselves scaling and crawling under fences to get into the Rio Grande Zoo after hours, entering the enclosures of the giraffes, sea lions and possibly the rhinos, and feeding and touching some of the animals.
BioPark director Rick Janser said an anonymous tipster sent police the Facebook pictures, which had been removed from the page of the person who was posting them Wednesday afternoon.
"We have their images; we have their names," Janser said Wednesday at a news conference about the break-in.Since no one found a body in the Rhino cage, we assume that all of the Facebook Fools found their way out of the Zoo alive. Well, at least one of them did anyway.
What immediately crossed our mind was how could a bunch of twenty-somethings - presumably at least a little inebriated - manage to break through a perimeter fence, hop into various animal habitats to party with the animals? They had to be making a bit of a ruckus, laughing, giggling, and disturbing the zoo's inhabitants - not to mention the flashes from their cameras. Why didn't city security detect the Dastardly Dummies?
Janser said zoo security consists of a fence around the entire zoo and guards who patrol at night. He wouldn't say how many guards there are, but said their work that night would be examined to see how they could have missed the people who broke in, wandered around the zoo and took pictures of themselves.
He said there is no video surveillance of the fences that surround the zoo, although there are cameras inside.While Janser wouldn't tell the Journal how many guards prowl the zoo at night, our Eyes tell us that there's exactly two - one that must stay in the guard house and one on patrol. Two guards might be enough to cover the zoo if they were assisted by security cameras - which they are not. As it stands the guard in the shack is useless for detecting grounds violations unless the break into a building and the zoo grounds are too big to cover for a single patrol officer. Our Eyes tell us that the BioPark is even more vulnerable.
The city has spent millions of taxpayer dollars on the zoo and the neighboring Albuquerque BioPark. Doesn't it make sense to provide adequate security to protect the taxpayer's investment?
Currently, city security has 82 guards and 14 supervisors. Yes... 14 supervisors. That's one supervisor for every 5.8 officers. It might not be a bad idea for a few supervisors to bolster the ranks out in the field. It's also probably a good idea to look into hiring a few more guards.
[Sidebar]
This is another example of how political legacy building damages the future. In a time of plenty, government can often scrape together enough money to build a huge facility but there's not enough long-term money to maintain and protect it.
The same applies to programs that fall outside the core function of government. They're created during a time of tax largess and impossible to get rid of when government receipts will no longer support them.
[End Sidebar]
We understand that money's tight right now and that hiring new employees is probably an impossibility. However, the city has a responsibility to protect its facilities as well as the cyber-idiots who might endanger themselves.
One other thing to consider... If you take the time to view the Facebook photos (Subscription), you'll note that there was apparently a large group of idiots on parade through the zoo. It seems unlikely that this was the first time the zoo had been compromised. It's more likely that one or two of the participants acted as guides and were familiar with how to enter the grounds and what the security (or lack thereof) was like.
This time, no one and no animal appears to have been harmed. But what about next time and what kind of liability is attached should someone be killed?
