Chief Coyle On Marathon Bombings

East Greenwich Police Chief Thomas Coyle can't help but think about a conversation he had in Hopkinton, Mass., a few years ago while waiting to run the Boston Marathon. 

He was crammed into a corral of sorts with many other runners and he struck up a conversation with a man who had come from France to participate in this most prestigious of marathons. 

"'You know what’s ironic?' I said to him. 'We plan for all these disasters. If somebody wanted to do something, why wouldn’t they do it right at the beginning of the race or right at the end?'" 

That prescient thought has haunted Coyle this week, following two explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line Monday that killed 3 and injured 170.

At the time, the Frenchman asked, "I wonder what security measures they have?"

"Oh, I’m sure they plan for that," Coyle had replied. 

Years later, he can hardly believe it: "I was having that conversation."

Yet, being a police officer means looking at the world differently.

"When I go to the mall, like go to Emerald Square Mall, I walk around going, 'What happens if someone detonates a bomb right now.' What would happen? Massive chaos. What would you do?" said Coyle. "Being in this business, you always look. When you go to restaurants, you always look where the exits are.... you try to be observant."

Coyle kept in touch with his French friend. This past Monday, Coyle knew his friend was in Boston running the marathon. Coyle himself had hoped to run it, but wasn't able to devote the training time this year.

Luckily, his friend Dave is a fast runner. He finished in 3 hours, 20 minutes, almost an hour before the explosions that rocked Boylston Street. So he was all right.

But for Coyle, the events Monday marked yet another instance of a changed world. September 11 was a huge change. Newtown marked a change. Monday will bring change. 

Coyle said he thinks about such incidents when planning for events like Summer's End. 

"I always say, ‘Guys, we’ve got to plan for the unexpected.’ What happens if someone detonates something in that field? What are we going to do? So, we try to plan for things like that."

It's those sorts of random acts police chiefs all over the country are wrestling with now. 

"We don’t have all the answers but you try to put protocols in place and do trainings. Let’s hope when adrenalin and panic set in, we all react accordingly," said Coyle. "This job is becoming more complex."