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03 May 2012: The Olympics will lead to tighter security, says expert

Increased surveillance and tighter security will be part of the legacy of the London Olympics, according to criminologist Dr Pete Fussey, the author of a new book on the subject.

Questions remain about how much of the security infrastructure being put in place for the games – which will include surface-to-air missiles and the possible use of Typhoon jets – will be fully removed afterwards, Dr Fussey will say in a talk today (THURS).

Dr Fussey, whose book, Securing and Sustaining the Olympic City, was published last year, says the increased use of security measures such as fixed cameras, mobile video cameras and bollards may have a lasting effect on London and on Londoners.

"Traditionally, security operations aimed at protecting the Games from crime and terrorism generate a number of controversies. And the 2012 Olympic Games are to be staged in the heart of one of the world's most densely populated cities,” Dr Fussey will say in a lecture to mark British Universities Week. “What is less clear is what will happen to the high level security measures that will be left behind after the Games.”

Dr Fussey, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Essex, believes the effect of the ‘Olympic security legacy’ on the communities of East London may provoke debate. “Security requirements have become increasingly central to Olympic planning” he says.

As an expert in security and counter-terrorism, Dr Fussey believes that the issue needs to be more widely debated. “For example during the Seoul and Tokyo Olympics, private security guards were seen for the first time in those countries – and they remained once the Olympics had gone. This in turn, raises questions of what will become of these spaces once the Games are finished.”

For further information contact:
Dr Pete Fussey
E-mail: pfussey@essex.ac.uk
Telephone 01206 87274

NOTES TO EDITORS

The talk is one of a series being given at the University of Essex this week to mark British Universities Week, which this year is on an Olympic theme.

Pete Fussey’s book, Securing and Sustaining the Olympic City, is published by Ashgate. Dr Fussey is also editor of Terrorism and the Olympics, published by Routledge.