This month marks exactly one year to go until the commencement of ‘the biggest show on Earth’ – the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The BSIA continues its involvement in security planning for the event, working alongside Government departments such as the Olympic Security Directorate (OSD), the Government Olympic Executive (GOE) and the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG), in turn helping to identify both the opportunities and challenges that the public and private sectors will face in securing the Games.
David Evans, the BSIA’s dedicated project director for 2012, commented: “The task of securing the Olympic Games is made all the more difficult by the geographical spread of the locations where the Olympic events will take place.”
He went on to state: “Moreover, the different types of arenas at each site pose multiple security concerns around transport security, crowd control and the threat of potential terrorist activity at the Games. These separate considerations, when joined together, mean that this is the largest scale security operation ever undertaken in the UK.”
Maintaining the infrastructure for London during Games time will also present a large-scale challenge. Most disruptive to the daily lives of London residents will be the huge influx of visitors to the Capital. Those visitors include not just spectators from around the world, but also visiting dignitaries, athletes and sponsors, all of whom require varying levels of security.
When Beijing hosted the 2008 Olympic Games, a single Games sponsor took an astonishing 6,000 VIPs from Europe to China.
In addition to this, it’s established tradition that larger participating nations host their own Nation Houses. This time around, for example, Brazil will be taking over London’s Somerset House for the duration of the Games.
Security protection for VIPs
Certainly, round-the-clock security will play a vital role in protecting all of these VIPs in addition to maintaining high standards of safety and security at the events themselves.
Protecting the many VIPs likely to attend the Olympic events and who need one-on-one protection means that a comprehensive, close protection detail needs to be in place: it’s fair to say that close protection officers are a ‘must’ for protecting VIPs such as celebrities and politicians.
In the case of the 2012 Games, a large concentration of high profile attendees will be in attendance, including national and international politicians, celebrities, members of Royal families and well-known sporting personalities.
Typically, the close protection officer’s work starts before an event, with risk assessment and detailed scrutiny of the given VIP’s programme to ensure that all angles are covered.
Under most scenarios, officers must ensure that high profile attendees are able to go about their daily business with almost an invisible bubble around them, reacting only when required.
In addition, the movement of cash – which itself forms part of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure – has to continue unhindered in the face of the large volumes of additional visitors to the city and the impact of the Olympic and Paralympic Route Networks. These networks of road alterations have been designed to ensure the smooth transport of officials and athletes to and from venues.
Three years ago, the BSIA represented its various Cash-in-Transit Section members in the early stages of Olympic planning to ensure that cash machines, supermarkets, banks and retailers will continue to receive timely and secure cash deliveries throughout what’s going to be a very busy period.
With the eyes of the world on London next summer, then, a huge logistical challenge is well underway to ensure that the Games take place safely and securely.
What will be missed by the millions who tune in to see these historic events unfold is the thousands of hours of planning, organisation and hard work that has been carried out to ensure the Games are just that: safe and secure.
So, if you are fortunate enough to have secured a ticket for any of the Olympic events, remember that your safety is of paramount importance to the event planners (whose overriding desire is to make this the most successful and most secure Olympic Games of all time).
BSIA set to reveal 2011 Security Personnel Awards winners at Annual Luncheon
The BSIA will be announcing the winners of its 2011 Security Personnel Awards at a glittering ceremony to be held in London next week.
Taking place on Wednesday 13 July at the prestigious London Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, the awards ceremony – which runs each year as an element of the BSIA’s Annual Luncheon – recognizes the outstanding performance of security officers in a number of categories (including Best Use of Technology, Best Team, Best Newcomer, Service to the Customer and Outstanding Act).
This year, the Security Personnel Awards will be presented by Lynne Featherstone MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Equalities and Criminal Information, who will also be delivering the keynote speech at the ceremony.
Featherstone, of course, is the coalition Government minister directly responsible for the Security Industry Authority.
The BSIA would like to take this opportunity to thank the day’s sponsors, Camberford Law plc, Kings Security Systems, Legion Group (a division of OCS Group UK), Security Plus and Selectamark Security Systems plc.
The Big Issue: Raid-control – striking back against retail crime
Security breaches bear a great cost to retailers who, in addition to suffering financial losses, often have to deal with interruptions to business continuity and unplanned downtime (as well as members of staff left shaken and distressed by the whole traumatic experience).
As a result, many smaller retailers are now turning to Raid-control, a crime reduction initiative dedicated to providing shop owners with valuable advice on how to ensure their retail premises are fully protected against the threats of robbery, theft and vandalism).
Although figures released earlier this year as part of the British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) 2010 Retail Crime Survey show a welcome reduction in the overall impact of retail crime, now is not the time to be complacent.
According to the research, in 2010 there were an average of four robberies per 100 outlets, each costing an average GB pound 846.60.
Typically, community-based convenience retailers and smaller shops are more vulnerable to falling victim to robbery. That being so, there’s an evident need to educate and assist these outlets in achieving better security and protection for their premises, goods, staff and customers.
Currently in the UK, there are no national guidelines or standards for retailers to follow when securing their premises. As such, Raid-control was established as a police and industry partnership initiative, supported by the BSIA, the BRC and other organisations in the security and retail sector.
This crime reduction scheme aims to tackle the general lack of awareness among retailers when it comes to Best Practice security measures and training: a lack of awareness which contributes to the high number of commercial robberies.
Raid-control gudelines: the five essentials
Raid-control guidelines comprise five essential elements: robbery awareness training, cash minimisation, time delayed systems, image capture systems and indelible staining and note marking equipment.
These five elements also form the basis of what retailers should do to protect their staff and premises against robberies.
In addition to these five elements, retailers should seek expert advice and improve their in-store security to prevent additional incidents such as customer or staff theft and vandalism.
CCTV equipment, security guarding, security alarms, property marking and access control systems – such as item tags – have time and again proven invaluable in deterring criminals and enabling retailers to respond more effectively to offences.
That said, to derive the most benefit from these systems, retailers must ensure that they are properly installed and monitored.
To learn more about Raid-control, visit www.raid-control.org (a dedicated link is provided at the foot of this page)
Amanda Beesley is PR and marketing communications manager at the BSIA
