Multi-layered security approach even includes chemical profile of building, rope access teams
BY HELEN WILLIAM, PRESS ASSOCIATION OLYMPICS CORRESPONDENT
Press Association Mediapoint
Updated: 07-5-2011 10:28 am
Searches used to help thwart Irish republican terrorists are being deployed by Scotland Yard to help lock down security at London 2012 venues, Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison said.
Defensive counter-terrorism search exercises are being carried out now and as completed Olympic venues are being handed over to the London 2012 organisers, giving the police "thinking time" for how they will need to search the venues next year.
It is part of a multi-layered security operation to create confidence that all 2012 venues, from the Olympic Stadium, athletes' village and Weymouth sailing venue, are safe in the face of possible threat.
Giving an insight into the search and secure operation being mounted across all venues for the London 2012 Games, Mr Allison, the national Olympic security co-ordinator, said: "Obviously we have been doing these types of searches for many years.
"We had to do it with the republican threat many years ago. It was one of the major bits of activity that we did to thwart Irish republican terrorism."
Police are using the transfer of venues - from the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), in charge of Olympic build, to the London 2012 organisers (Locog) - to do exercises to test their search procedures.
He said: "We are running the Games as an isle-site concept. You secure the perimeter of your site. You then do a defensive search to ensure there is nothing in it that should not be there, so you are entirely happy it is a secure venue.
"Then after that you search everything and everybody that comes in, so you can be happy that nothing that should not be there is in there.
"We are going to do this for all of the Olympic stadia and venues prior to the Games as the new build stadia or venues have been handed over".
A rope access team including detectives on harnesses strung from the roof searching the spotlights, detector dogs looking for traces of mock explosives and police officers carrying out systematic hand searches were part of a recent defensive counter-terrorism test search exercise at the £486m Olympic Stadium.
The hand searchers at the Olympic Stadium included police search units used at crime scenes such as the murders, the July 7 bombings or a shooting. They are also used in places where police believe drugs or money has been hidden. These officers could be told to search a room or an open space like the Olympic Stadium. They investigate everything from looking behind light switches to looking in to voids.
There was also a profile team of officers whose job was to create a chemical profile of the building.
Mr Allison said: "When we do one of these we also create a profile of the building so that if we get called in during Games-time because somebody has smelled something funny we can go in and say `that is OK, that is what the normal reading is'
"The team can turn up and say we do not need to worry about it.
"There is nothing in here that should not be in here so we can let the Games run.
"It means that in the event of somebody doing what we describe as 10 pence terrorism and saying `there is a bomb under seat 5' we can say no there is not because we searched under seat 5.
"The searches give confidence for the command team and the event organisers Locog that the venue is safe and secure."
The current thinking is that searching the stadium could potentially be a two to three-day job.
Mr Allison said: "It depends, if we are going to do it in Games-time with all the fit-out that has taken place it is going to take an awful lot longer. "But it is exercises like this which help us to validate our thinking to make sure we understand exactly what it is we need to do and then we can plot the staffing levels appropriately.
"These procedures are helping build confidence they will not have to face the unknown in 2012 and the venues are secure before use."
Things as mundane such as knowing which keys open which locks and that different sorts of roof tiles open in different ways can hamper searching and were useful lessons learned at the Olympic Stadium. Police are effectively learning how the buildings were constructed in order to ensure search procedures are appropriate, according to Mr Allison.
He said: "We would not be searching it in this way when there are 80,000 people.
"If you imagine at a time in 2012 we will say we are going to do a defensive search of the building to reassure us that nothing is in it.
"When the 80,000 people come in here for the opening ceremony they themselves will come in to a building that has been searched and they will be searched so that again we can reassure ourselves that there is nothing in here that should not be in here."
Part of the problem is that there are only a limited number of search officers and so effort has to be made to ensure the best use is being made of them.
He said: "These exercises beforehand mean that in the limited window that we have for the defensive searches in 2012 we can make sure that all the venues we to have search are searched.
"The more we understand it, the easier it makes it for us during Games-time. It also means that we are working really really closely with the people we will be working closely with in Games-time such as Locog (the London 2012 organisers) and the ODA."
The exercises also give officers a better idea where all the "nooks and crannies" in a large building such as the Olympic Stadium that could be ideal potential hiding places are located.
Mr Allison said: "We started this with the velodrome. When the velodrome was handed over we did a big search exercise up there.
"It gives us a greater understanding of the building, the area that we are going to have to search and we are starting to develop relationships with the people up there that we will have to work with.
"It is exactly with same with this (the Olympic Stadium). This is about to be handed over to Locog and it is a good time for us to do this search exercise.
"As new venues are completed, whether it is the aquatic centre or the others, we will do a similar exercise there. "
All venues and other Games buildings will get a big defensive sweep from top to bottom. Maintenance teams are then sent in once an area has been secured. More searches could be ordered if the need arises "for an extra once over" or if there is a VIP visit.
"Once that is complete we rely on other security measures to maintain that sterility and the fact that it is clear, " Mr Allison said.
The props and overlay needed to turn the empty shell of the Olympic Stadium into the vibrant stage for the opening and closing ceremonies are further issues.
He said: "Obviously the more stuff that is in here, the longer it takes to search and that is the more complicated part of this activity. That is part of what we are working with Locog at the moment to try and understand when is the best time for all of us to do those searches because once it has been searched then there, in effect, has to be a guard force put on it to maintain the sterility.
"Locog will bring in an overlay (for all venues once they have been built) our work is understanding how much longer it will take to search once that overlay is here.
"As more stuff gets put in here, the inspector who is in charge of the search of this building will spend a lot of time with Locog to understand what they are going to do so he can adjust and adapt and maybe lengthen his search plans."
Officers now have "a good baseline of understanding" about the Olympic Stadium .
"There has been nothing like this. The policing of the Olympics is the biggest police-time operation that we have ever had to do and by the very nature of it - the defensive search element is exactly the same."
GAO says US airport bomb screening needs update
Report finds screening systems at many airports use old detection criteria
BY SHAUN WATERMAN
The Washington Times
Updated: 07-13-2011 9:47 am
The Transportation Security Administration spent $8 billion since the Sept. 11 attacks installing machines at airports to screen checked bags for explosives, but many of the systems are obsolete and need to be upgraded, according to congressional investigators.
In a report set for release Wednesday at a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that explosives-screening equipment at many of the 462 U.S. airports use detection criteria more than a decade old, and machines being installed now will require upgrading before they can meet the latest standards.
The problems mean the machines, called Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) are less able to detect the latest terrorist bomb threats, according to committee Chairman John L. Mica, Florida Republican.
"TSA's delays and poor planning continue to waste our limited resources, threaten transportation security, and weaken our ability to address the latest terrorist threats," Mr. Mica said in a statement.
The GAO found that many of the EDS machines deployed throughout the country are still operating under 1998 standards. Those standards were revised by TSA in 2005 and then again in January 2010 after the unsuccessful attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner using explosives hidden in a passenger's underwear.
The exact standards are classified - based on intelligence reporting about the latest terror threats - but they include the chemical makeup and minimum amounts of each of the various explosives types the machines are designed to detect.
The GAO report said machines deployed this year were still using the 2005 standards, and might need multiple software and hardware upgrades to meet 2010 requirements.
"Not only has TSA failed to complete implementation of the 2005 standards, now the 2010 standards will be delayed, leaving the whole process in disarray," Mr. Mica said.
GAO investigators also said TSA had no effective plan for carrying out the upgrades or for installing the latest generation of machines.
"Unbelievably, TSA has not fully implemented explosive detection screening technology requirements after six years and is trying to play catch-up while delaying implementation of the most up-to-date detection standards intended to address current terrorist threats," said Mr. Mica, a longtime critic of the agency who has repeatedly pointed out flaws in the nation's aviation security.
In its response to the GAO report, the TSA said the agency had to move ahead with deployment of the EDS machines in many airports where the major work required to install them was already under way - funded in 2009 by the stimulus bill.
"A critical need exists to meet airport schedules for installation of EDS into baggage handling systems that are currently being built," wrote TSA's Jim Crumpacker.
The agency stated that "detection requirements are dynamic in nature due to continuous intelligence-driven threat assessment" and that they were working closely with the machines' manufacturers to ensure that the latest generation technology could be tested and deployed as quickly as possible.
The agency said it concurred with and was implementing the six GAO recommendations, including developing a plan to make sure the machines they purchased during the rest of this year met the latest standards.
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