Following reports that safe rooms were set up beneath London’s Olympic Stadium to “invacuate” key figures, Britain-based the Panic Room Company is already collaborating with security experts in Brazil as attention turns to Rio 2016.
Steve Brook, Business Development Director for the Panic Room Company, comments, “In May this year we exhibited at the EXPOSEC International Security Fair in Sao Paolo, Brazil – the world’s fifth largest security show. This industry is booming in Brazil as it caters to rising incomes, rising crime and makes preparations for huge security tests in the shape of FIFA World Cup 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Our Panic Room has sparked enormous interest and we will be working alongside our Brazilian distributors to assess how best we can support to Brazil’s upcoming needs for personal protection.”
Security at London 2012 has been a resounding success as the capital launched its largest peacetime security operation in history. CCTV, vehicle scanning, miles of razor-wire-topped electric fencing, ground-to-air missile sites, strict airspace and flight surveillance, private security staff and recalled military personnel have all ensured that the athletes and spectators felt safe. More than 80 heads of state and government attended the Opening Ceremony, including First Lady Michelle Obama and royalty from Brunei, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. Looking from across the Atlantic, Rio’s Extra newspaper said: “The near-perfect organisation has made a big impression, suddenly leaving Rio with an even greater weight of responsibility.”
Having received the Olympic nod on 2 October 2009, Brazil has dived headlong into its near seven year-long preparations for 2016 and also for the FIFA World Cup coming up two years earlier. President of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, Carlos Nuzman, led a team of a hundred or more observers to London to learn from these Games and called them an “important step” on the way to Rio. He said that work on security was already underway in the southern Brazilian city with federal, state and municipal forces set to work alongside private security within the venues.
Brazil faces a particularly complex challenge as organised crime, gang violence, extortion and drug trafficking are a day-to-day occurrence in parts of the country and fans and tourists must be protected accordingly. Plans are afoot to use advanced surveillance techniques, border controls and to blacklist past troublemakers to create that safe environment. Security officers are also being trained how to foil terror attacks, something the country is unused to as there are no known terrorist groups operating in the country neither has there been any terrorist attacks in Brazil for many years. Terror laws as yet do not exist in Brazil but, despite the country’s low risk status, consideration has to be given to the large international delegation with first-hand experience of terror attacks. The Panic Room may prove to be vital tool for their personal protection.
Contact the Panic Room Company on phone UK: 08000 467 232, Intl: +44 (0) 1142 564 530, email [email protected] or visit www.thepanicroomcompany.com.
