Amery on Olympics at UK Expo

by Mark Rowe

Andrew Amery – head of security for LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) and even before that, head of security for the bid that won the staging of the 2012 Games, in 2005 – gave his perspective on London and Rio Olympics in a talk at the UK Security Expo last week.

He contrasted the ‘strategic learning’ necessary for an Olympics, years in the planning, with the preparing for policing a football match, or a pop concert; it needs a different mindset to assess the risk, for something that is going to happen years ahead: “And it’s a different skill-set.”

Besides the different personnel – different UK prime ministers in the years running up to 2012, and different state governors in the years before Rio 2016 – Amery spoke of how it’s difficult to know what the threats are going to be, at the time of the Olympics, or what security is required; equipment might not have been designed, yet. “Funding will always be a challenge,” he said, whether London, Rio, or the next Olympics, in Tokyo in 2020.

From the time you win the bid, as you move forward, you narrow down what it is you need, he told the London Olympia audience; but only after the event do you realise what was the piece of kit you needed. And nearer the opening ceremony, the price of the equipment will go up, because of the risk to the supplier, and the time pressure.

Rio had a double fence around the Olympic Village, and London a single fence, he recalled: “I am not going to go into what is right and what is wrong; the London one was right for the threats that it faced.” But questions such as where is the fence going to be, what specification, whether it’s electrified, and where should CCTV cameras be placed are to be decided before the manufacture, installation, testing and operation, he said. As for searching of spectators at entry, first you had to make the policy. Echoing other speakers at the event, Amery made the point that investing in equipment is of no value, ‘unless you invest in your people’, giving the example of staff at screening machines at entrances needing to be trained in using the equipment.

“Security is actually everyone’s business,” Amery said. “We need to normalise security within an organising committee. We [the security sector] sometimes fail to perceive how we are perceived by other people. We have got to break down barriers and engage.”

He touched on the sheer variety of functions that security ought to engage with, and have an input from an early stage, from the opening ceremony, to staff communications, accreditation (of athletes, press, VIPs), catering, transport and logistics, and ticketing (against counterfeits). He suggested bringing in security ‘earlier than we normally do’, as security does not get into gear until four years before an Olympics or Commonwealth Games, and only after many decisions have been made.

Who pays for security? The contracts put the requirement on the host nation. London 2012 hired scanning machines from Rapiscan, which were then taken by Glasgow for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, Amery making the point that there has to be a business model for security product manufacturers.

About the UK Security Expo

The 2017 event runs again at London Olympia on Wednesday and Thursday, November 29 and 30.

Picture by Mark Rowe; the boulevard to the Olympic Stadium at Stratford.

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