Was the Security Prepared for the London 2012 Olympics?

But, local residents will be adversely affected by noise, dust and visual pollution due to many people traveling to and from Stratford during the games, which will cause policing and security to be extremely tight due to potential terrorist threat during the games.

Neil Faulkner was determined that the 2012 London Olympics would ensure a profound legacy for Britain as a nation. Firstly, this would lead to a historical development magnificent transport infrastructure to magnify the underground rail and road networks as well (Poulton, 2012). Secondly, the event would upgrade the Britain culture for more tourism activities (Poulton, 2012). This would enable London to gain the desired attention from the world effectively and convenient to benefit the nations (Xiaoming, 2012). Thirdly, the events would trigger environmental protection, and vital scientific innovations complete development of London. (Poulton,

There are quite a few factors that shaped the modern-day Olympics from 1892 to 2002. Pierre de Coubertin states that he wanted to create the Olympics to spread world peace. He does this by substituting war for friendly sports competitions (doc 1). Of course, there were some bumps in the road while trying to achieve this utopia. Some factors that have changed the Olympics are the allowing of women being able to compete in the Olympics, women’s suffrage, nationalism, wars, and economic conditions (doc 2-7).

An article titled "Gate-Crashing at Village Easy Despite the Guards" states that, "Anyone who wants to crash the Olympic Village badly enough, as Arab guerrillas did early this morning in search of Israeli athletes and officials, can succeed without difficulty." Additionally, The New York Times would report that the guerrillas snuck in weakly disguised as athletes armed with a cache of weapons in duffle bags. These men, as a diagram of the Olympic Village shows, did not have to go far to find the Israelis after easily entering the compound. Red Smith, sports editorialist, was livid at Olympic Organizers for their lack of attention to detail, and due to the fact that the Games continues until 4:00 PM on the day of the attacks. "The men who run the Olympics are not evil men. Their shocking lack of awareness can't be due to callousness." He adds, "It has to be stupidity." The New York Times put security under the microscope on day one of reporting the story, and would continue to do so for several days.

The next major terror attack in the United States will either be on an infrastructure target or some large public gathering such as the Super Bowl. No matter how efficient our local and federal officials seem to be, they cannot watch everyone. I feel the greatest problem, here at home and in Europe, is home-grown subversives. These people are already intertwined into our society and work in or have access to these types of venues. With the proliferation of hateful rhetoric and national division, weak minded people will follow any person or organization who pays them any attention, ultimately doing harm to the same country which provides them the freedom to act as they wish. It ultimately takes few individuals with the right knowledge and access

The security of the Olympic Village, where the terrorists abducted the team, was nonexistent. The Olympic organizers

One of the most significant introductions to technology in sport over recent years was during the London 2012 Olympics last Summer. The Olympics is the worlds largest sporting event and requires state of the art technology to ensure that accurate readings are taken in each event and all athletes are provided with the ability to perform at their very best.

At the time of the attacks, the security budget for the Olympics was only $2 million, compared $1 billion spent on security for the 2004 Olympics (Maslin, 2005). This amount was doubled for the 2012 Olympic Games in London where more the $2 billion was spent on security (Forgrave, 2012). As soon as a city wins the bid to host the Olympics, security becomes one of the top priorities. They have six years to prepare for the Games and ensure they are as safe as possible. In Munich, many of the security personnel were low-key or undercover. Later Olympic Games were guarded by a much larger, more visible security presence of armed police officers and military units. Many of these operate out of command centers with the cooperation of law enforcement agencies from all over the

“Our greatest hopes and our worst fears are seldom realized… Our worst fears have been realized tonight.” On September 5th, 1972 the Olympic games that had originally been known as “The Games of Peace and Joy” quickly became the polar opposite. The Munich Massacre was an event that greatly shaped the way that terrorism was both approached and viewed throughout the world. The increase in tension between the Palestinian state and Israel, the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes, and the aftermath of those events, lead to the prominent change in terrorism internationally.

Safety is the most important aspect of any event because of this the Chinese government spent up to 6.5 billion dollars to police and monitor the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (Coakley, 2017, p.409). This is a logical correlation because these two industries benefit each other greatly so it's vitally important that the public feel safe at something where the ultimate goal is to have fun and support your country or favorite team.

The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia were rocked by a bomb that detonated July 27, 1996 at 1:20pm. My own father walked Centennial Olympic Park 30 minutes before the bomb, set by Eric Rudolph, exploded, killing one and injuring 111. This was the first of four. Which raises the question. How safe is the Olympics? An unnecessary, dangerous luxury for many. Not just for the athletes, but for spectators as well. “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise,” a quote by Victor Hugo informs us that even after humanity is corrupted and killed, we will always rise again. Sometimes, that quote is enough to push us through even the harshest of times.

Although the city has never hosted the Olympic games, it has hosted various international sporting events such as the 1999 Women’s World Cup, 2006 Men’s World Curling Championship, 2009 World Skateboard Championships/Dew Tour, 2012 Fed Cup Tennis Tournament, 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championship. On top of these international sporting events, the city of Boston has also been host to the Democratic National Convention. Both the Democratic National Convention and the Olympic games are considered to be National Special Security Events (NSSE). This means that the United States Secret Service Agency would act as the head of safety and security operations. Since the city of Boston has prior experience dealing with the U.S. Secret Service, this will ensure a smooth implementation of security measurements by the federal, state, and local agencies.

Olympics are mega-global event that attracts the attention worldwide with billions of audience watching on television, while millions flock to events as spectators. The media embraces the opportunity of covering every inch of the games. This kind of interest is what organisers face with no room for error in relation to external attacks or system failures of the event although risks are bound to occur to any project or program as in the case of Olympics. These risks may occur with a positive impact to the organisers though they dread to have negative risks, which causes ripple effect to the project. (Taylor, 2006)

The year that London hosted the Olympic games, multi-sport event. London was in the running to host the Olympiad against 4 other top cities including Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid. Each city wanted to host the Olympics to help strengthen its image and gain high visitor numbers. London pitched their reason as to why they should be chosen due to aiming at the younger generation, regeneration of cities, and idea to build world renown venues. Once London was picked to host, London wanted to choose Stratford specifically as the location to regenerate. The area had potential to be a great place for the visitor numbers due to the games, however it needed some work. It was a very disadvantaged city (5). After the games, London had boosted its economy by receiving revenues of 2.41 billion. The organizing committee for the London 2012, LOCOG made payments to BOA of 5.3 million

Developing and managing of the Olympic games, satellite and associated events should be based on elements and principles of ensuring that the work is done effectively across all the cultures that will be participating in the event. One of the most important elements that the organizers and managers of the event should take with a lot of seriousness is the issue of security. Security should be guaranteed to ensure that all the participant, visitors, stakeholders and tourists are safe (Cabrini, 2004). This is a very important element that will ensure the success of the event. Security personnel should be trained and given all the necessary facilities to enable them manage the event adequately.