Science Informed Major Event Security Planning: From Vulnerability Analysis to Security Design

Abstract

The post 9/11 security landscape has seen a fundamental shift in security planning, organization and management across the national and global security domain. This shift is particularly evident with regards to special events. Major national regional and global events such as the Olympic Games, FIFA world cup, the US Super Bowl, and the Boston Marathon draw large crowds of spectators and participants thereby creating vulnerable targets. The 1972 Munich Olympics and 1996 Atlanta Olympics are 2 examples of pre-9/11 attacks on sporting events. Since 9/11, we have seen attacks on events such as the Boston Marathon in 2013, Las Vegas active shooter in 2017 and the bombing in Manchester at the Ariana Grande concert in 2017. These examples highlight the inherent vulnerabilities and security challenges that reside in major events (sporting, cultural, religious, musical). With this in mind, security budgets have increased to deal with such risks and threats. For example, the security budget for the 2012 London Olympics topped $1.46 Billion and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was over $900 million.

This chapter examines the security challenges and solutions for managing major event security. Scenario planning and disaster forensic methodologies (Masys AJ (ed), Disaster forensics: understanding root cause and complex causality. Springer, Cham, 2016) are presented along with the role of predictive analytics in supporting vulnerability analysis and security solution navigation. Key recommendations are made pertaining to vulnerability analysis and the development and design of a security architecture planning framework rooted in a High Reliability Security Organizations (Masys AJ, Designing high reliability security organizations for the homeland security enterprise. In: A Siedschlag, A Jerkovic (eds) Homeland security cultures: enhancing values while fostering resilience. Rowman & Littlefield International, London).