SECURITY TECHNOLOGY Protecting valuable and high risk sites, such as London's Docklands commercial district, is ever-more challenging for the security industry. Siemens.
is also a major challenge. A really effective defence is more a matter for our counter-terrorist intelligence agencies rather than just for the security technology industry. Current technology can only make
a difference in very specific scenarios without encroaching too far into the everyday civil liberties that we all take for granted. Terrorists might detonate an explosive device outside the secure area of an airport, train station or anywhere there are significant numbers of people. Yet, if continuous monitoring of the external environs of these facilities was to be effectively implemented, normal life would be completely disrupted. Similarly, if we recognise that the German rail system carries more passengers in a day than Lufthansa does in a year, we also have to appreciate that you cannot simply adopt the measures
AUTUMN 2011 EDITION
of an airport security checkpoint and apply it to the rail network. Developments in technology will undoubtedly have a role to play here – more sophisticated explosives detectors, improved metal detection and monitoring behavioural patterns are all amongst them. Individually they can help, but working together they can significantly increase the probability of success.
Technology to support the human element of security In the development of today’s intelligent security technology, the United Kingdom is playing a leading role. There are, within the City of London for instance, an estimated 800,000 video cameras monitoring the streets around the clock. This is the greatest number of police security cameras per square metre of any city in the world. Though not all of these cameras are “intelligent”, the installed base that they all constitute has the potential to be
11 CounterTerrorGazette
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