Reflections on Security at the 2012 Olympics

Abstract

Securing the 2012 Olympic Games was the biggest security operation in the UK for nearly 70 years. It demanded levels of resources unparalleled in peacetime and involved the British Government much more deeply in strategy, planning and assurance for a domestic security operation than is usual. The UK's counter-terrorist strategy, CONTEST, provided the basic framework for the approach to Olympic security but steps were needed to mitigate all risks to the Games security. It was an exceptional level of inter-agency coordination and cooperation, rather than any new techniques, that lay behind the success of the security posture.

Notes

¹ Home Office, London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Safety and Security Strategy March 2011, p.7 < https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97983/olympic-safety-security-strategy.pdf>.

² See, for example, CONTEST, The United Kingdom's Strategy for Countering Terrorism, Annual Report Cm 8583, TSO, March 2013.

³ Home Office, London 2012 Olympic Safety and Security Strategic Risk Assessment (OSSSRA) and Risk Mitigation Process Summary Version 2, January 2011 < https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97982/osssra-summary.pdf>.

⁴ Home Office Audit and Review of Olympic & Paralympic Safety and Security Planning, Summary, 2010 < https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97986/audit-olympic-security-nov10.pdf>.

⁵ Home Office, London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Safety and Security Strategy, March 2011.

⁶ HM Government, CONTEST: The United Kingdom's Strategy for Countering Terrorism Cm 8123, TSO, July 2011 < https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97995/strategy-contest.pdf>.

⁷ An analysis of concerns expressed before the Games was published by Stop the Traffik: Human Trafficking and the London Olympics < www.stopthetraffik.org/download.php?type = resource&id = 168> (accessed 15 October 2013).

⁸ Home Affairs Select Committee 7th report 2012–13, published 21 September 2012, Olympics Security.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Raine

Robert Raine was appointed in 2008 as the Director of Olympic and Paralympic Security at the Home Office in the United Kingdom, the senior person in the British Government with full-time responsibility for Games safety and security. This article is based on a talk he gave at the George C. Marshall, European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on 25 April 2013.