Pella Police Chief Robert Bokinsky was working as a commander with the Ocean City police force on the day of the attacks 14 years ago.

Bokinsky tells KNIA/KRLS News 9/11 created a greater need for vigilance among all citizens.

“It became: when you see something, tell somebody what you saw, don’t keep it to yourself,” he says. “That’s the biggest part of intelligence–mining that information.”

Bokinsky says there was a lot of uncertainty that day amongst his fellow officers following the attacks on the World Trade Center.

“There was just a lot of anxiety, especially in law enforcement circles,” he says. “Because it turned into, ‘what’s expected of us? what do we do here?'”

“This seemed like war, these were acts of war, and it’s somewhat out the scope of what we do, but it was a war on a civilians, and that’s who we are there to protect.”