Accelerating global urbanization will see 60% of humanity living in cities by 2020. This creates significant security challenges for those charged with maintaining security. We look at three main activities essential to the creation of an urban environment in which people feel safe and secure: anticipating trouble, responding effectively and keeping everyone informed. This approach requires highly trained security staff working in an urban area designed for safety.
by Cassidian
Security professionals and emergency responders need the support of automated monitoring and alerting solutions and assisted decision-making. Today’s smart solutions deliver not just these attributes, but also help to control costs by making the best use of the available personnel. From security for critical sites and professional radio communications for multi-agency operations, to command and control systems and bomb-disposal training, an extensive urban security portfolio is about more than individual solutions. There is a need to deliver all-round security and play a big part in making the world’s cities safer and more peaceful places to live and work.
New security demands
Expanding urban environments can be exciting and vibrant places to live and work, but they also present risks. Increasingly diverse communities can be a source of greater social tensions and serious security threats, for instance. At the same time, a higher population density means that any problems – whether natural, accidental or malicious – can have a more devastating impact.
In addition, cost pressures are forcing urban leaders to find ways to optimize their use of manpower. That is why more and more authorities are choosing to deploy smart technological solutions to keep their cities safe. The key components of effective urban security can be summed up as follows:
- anticipate
- respond
- inform
This combination requires personnel to be supported by systems that enable them to automate monitoring and alerts, as well as providing them with assisted decision-making. Effective communications and an accurate, shared picture of a changing situation allow different agencies to anticipate a potential problem, deploy the right resources to prevent an escalation and, where necessary, alert the public to any threat.
Modern city challenges
In the past, regular police patrols were the only option for maintaining urban law and or-der. Today, new ways of communication and information sharing are helping the authorities to provide better coverage and a faster, more-effective response to security situations. They also help optimize costs, by making the best possible use of the available personnel.
The rise of city living provides some common challenges around the world, with more heterogeneous communities, a higher threat potential and greater impact in the event of serious incidents. But each city also faces its own challenges. For example, in the most developed countries, city dwellers expect a healthier, safer and more comfortable environment, digital technology is a way of life and people are increasingly interested in attending mega-events, such as concerts and sporting occasions. These changes are also causing a shift in the focus of public safety initiatives, such as the need to provide enhanced cyber protection, to safeguard infrastructure for commuters and those participating in mega-events and to deploy simulation software to anticipate any problems.
In emerging economies, the ballooning middle class is shifting social attitudes and expectations. Transforming social structures are changing the perception of safety. A widening social gap often accompanies the rise of a new middle class, and brings with it the danger of unrest and violence. Social unrest due to urban heterogeneity is not confined to one part of the world, how-ever. The risk of unrest has risen in most advanced economies over the past five years, and perhaps most notably in the Middle East and North Africa.
Successful security
Urban security is about creating an environment in which people can feel safe and secure as they live, work and do business in the city. In principle, there are three fundamental areas that the ideal security solution should support:
1. Anticipate – and prevent where possible – problems such as social unrest, crime, aggressive behavior and terrorism. Where prevention is not possible, well-prepared urban leaders will have plans in place to deal with adverse consequences and minimize any danger or disruption.
2. Respond quickly and prevent further escalation. Correct the situation and instigate an effective recovery.
3. Inform all the right people. That includes security personnel and other emergency responders, as well as the general public.
Modern urban security solutions can help authorities to anticipate and in some cases pre-vent the common security problems of city living, such as social unrest, crime, aggressive behavior and terrorism. The right systems can also help to mitigate any damage in the wake of an incident.
The following fundamental elements needed to create the safe city landscape all need to be taken into consideration:
- A safe city starts with an urban environment that has been designed to minimize risk and recover quickly from any possible consequences.
- Critical locations should have solutions in place to provide full situational awareness to the relevant agencies. Such automated, integrated systems can provide a higher level of protection than a regime based on guards alone. They can often collect valuable intelligence that enables security personnel to adopt the most appropriate countermeasures to a given threat.
- If a problem occurs, the authorities should be able respond quickly to correct the situation and recover. They should also be able keep everyone “in-the-loop”, including responders and the general public, where appropriate.
- Safe and efficient communication tools mean that commanders can always ask for more details if necessary, while field personnel can access all the available intelligence. Every-one has the information they need to make the right decisions and work effectively together, even during multi-agency operations.
- End-to-end encrypted voice communications make eavesdropping a thing of the past. This can be equally valuable for security personnel and for business professionals.
- Digital communications can be vulnerable to cyber-attacks, so a cyber-security solution can protect public safety communications and businesses, as well as vital infrastructure operations, such as utility and transport net-works, or industrial production at oil and gas facilities, for example.
- Smart decision-making tools can interpret and predict different cyber-security alerts and their likely impact on operations and businesses. This enables security experts to focus on the biggest threats.
- Finally, the authorities need to be equipped to disarm and dispose of high-risk threats such as bombs or improvised explosive devices. The right training and information systems can also support them here.
A portfolio of solutions such as that offered by Cassidian specifically addresses all these areas, in order to deliver all-round urban security.
Site security
The DoMax site security solution is already widely used across a range of critical sites, including airbases, barracks, power plants and desalination plants, among others.
It offers site-wide situational awareness to a single operator by bringing information from all the available sources together on a single screen. Guard-based security regimes cannot hope to match this level of coverage and intelligence. The information collected empowers the operator to take the right kind of action to match any threat.
Cyber security for oil and gas
Industrial control systems can be vulnerable to cyber-attacks. The solution here allows operators to monitor the condition of the sys-tem in real time. The Cymerius decision-making tool understands the different security alerts and the possible impact on business. This enables it to alert the right personnel to tackle a particular problem and enables security experts to focus on the real threat, rather than harmless ‘glitches’. These solutions support oil and gas operators by assuring continuity of production.
Emergency response
When distressed people call the emergency services, they often need help fast. Call taking systems need to be efficient, and a common picture across the different response organizations enables better co-operation.
Computer-aided dispatch helps allocate the right resources quickly – however complicated the incident may be. Radio dispatch enables effective, two-way communication with personnel in the field, while a public warning system alerts anyone who might be under threat from the incident.
Cassidian’s emergency response solution integrates all types of information seamlessly, allowing smooth co-operation between different agencies at district and city level and even at national level, where strategic decision-making may be called for. The result is that dispatchers and their emergency response teams are armed with all the information they need to make the right decisions and mount the most effective operation.
Mobile radio
Digital radio solutions include base stations, field radios and data access devices for field personnel, control room staff, managers and city leaders, indoor coverage in potentially vulnerable sites such as shopping malls, industrial installations or airport terminals. Meanwhile broadband vehicle routers for seamless high-speed data access from vehicles, enable the use of applications on-the-move that were previously accessible only in the office. This can boost the effectiveness of field operaions.
In addition, encrypted voice communication allows the safe and confidential sharing of strategic information, suitable for most smartphones and tablets.
Personnel
Effective training is required for personnel charged with tackling immediate threats such as bombs or other terrorist attacks. Holistic Explosives and Ammunition Training (HEAT) solutions enable special forces units from the military or police authorities to combine high-end training technology with state-of-the art expertise to prepare for these threats. APSYS training such as those services for the army and police, include conventional training, e-learning, simulation training as well as hands-on training. With the help of relevant training the personnel is prepared to manage and prevent problems.
21st century city safety
This is the century of the mega-city, as the trend towards urbanization continues to accelerate around the world. Securing these growing urban environments is a challenge that cannot be met using outmoded, 20th-century operational methods. It requires a new, holistic security approach based on highly trained security staff working in an environment that has been designed for safety.Security teams should be supported by automated monitoring and alerting solutions and assisted decision-making systems. Effective communications and an accurate, common picture of the operating situation allow personnel from different agencies to quickly spot when incidents are threatening to start, and to deploy the right resources to deal with them quickly and prevent them from escalating.
A holistic urban security approach provides city leaders with security solutions to keep their cities safe.