Measures

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Measures are provisions made or actions taken to protect an object or subject from risk.

Measure types can be classified by their temporal application: structural or event-driven measures. Structural measures are more geared towards permanent solutions, such as infrastructural improvements, in order to reduce the risk of criminal acts taking place in the areas where these measures are applied. Event-driven measures have a more temporal nature and can be implemented in order to ensure extra risk reduction and mitigation for (large scale) events. These are intended for more high impact crimes such as (terrorist) attacks.

Structural measure types to protect an object or subject from risk

Structural measures are permanent solutions that mediate the risk of a criminal act. These measures can be further classified by their point of application in the process of a criminal act. From the perspective of a criminal, all measures reduce the perceived attractiveness of a target. Identified points of application are:

  • Increasing perceived effort
  • Increasing perceived risk
  • Decreasing anticipated reward
  • Controlling contributing circumstances
  • Other

All measure types can be classified in one of these categories. The table below displays for each of the measure types in Securipedia, which point of application it works on.

By clicking the a brief description of the measure is provided.

Increasing perceived effort Increasing perceived risk Decreasing anticipated reward Contributing circumstances Other
Target hardening Surveillance Target removal Controlling disinhibitors Deflection
Access control Intervention force Removal of crime motivator Facilitating compliance Creating awareness / stimulating conscience
Directing traffic flows Screening Rule setting
Removing means Increase punishment Ownership
Maintenance

Event-driven measure types

Event driven-measures are temporal solutions that can mediate the risk of a high-impact crime (such as an attack) at an event in a designated area. These measures, in turn, can be broken down into various technology categories that could assist in the mitigation of vulnerabilities:

The five technology categories in event-driven measures are:

  1. ICT that could be used for communicating, storing, analysing and protecting information. Examples are: WiFi, IoT, Encryption, VPN, et cetera;
  2. Sensors that could be used for detection, identification, localisation or tracking. Examples are: cameras, facial recognition, acoustic sniper localisation, et cetera;
  3. Actuators that could be used for warning, intercepting or eliminating. Examples are: sirens, anti-drone drones, HPM vehicle stopping, et cetera;
  4. Physical measures that could be used for controlling access, impeding an attack or protective materials. Examples are: tourniquets, portable rising steps, bomb blast window film, et cetera;
  5. Methods that could be used for procedures, best practices or standards to implement solutions. An example is the ISO 31000 Risk Management

In this application, the term technology should be interpreted in the broadest sense of the word. It includes both hard technologies and soft technologies. Hard technologies are tangible devices or components (e.g. computers and software). Soft technologies include the human areas of decision making, strategy development, training, and concept formation (e.g. methodologies or procedures).

Each technology is (part of) a security measure, providing some basic security function as a response to a (potential) threat. As used in the EU VAT, there are ten different technology uses that range from before, during and after an attack. The technology uses are:

  1. Alert - used for alerting public (e.g. sirens, texting service);
  2. Surveil - used for situational awareness (e.g. cameras, social media tools);
  3. Respond - used for responding to an attack (e.g. security personnel, non-lethal weapons);
  4. Protect - used to protect assets (people, buildings, infrastructure);
  5. Detect - used for detecting a weapon or weapon use (e.g. entry scanning equipment);
  6. Overcome - used for overcoming a sudden vulnerability (e.g. extra concertina wire);
  7. Improvise - created on the spot from available means (e.g. use police vehicle as a road block);
  8. Restrict - used for restricting public access (e.g. safety barriers);
  9. Adapt - used for changing circumstances (e.g. moving assets to a safer location);
  10. Other.

The following examples illustrate the potential needs for these event-driven, technological solutions by indicating their support towards mediating risk and mitigating vulnerabilities:

  • Enhancing the surveillance of an area to for instance count crowds, monitor allocation of citizens or identify occurrences of objects or behaviors. By enhancing this surveillance, a municipality and the other local actors can identify anomalies or assess the impact at certain moments in time before an attack or respond faster to incidents and aid citizens.
  • Enhancing the cooperation between different actors (between own forces as well as completely different actors). In the cases of terrorist attacks, actors do not stand alone and need to cooperate in order to prevent, responds and recover from terrorist attacks. By enhancing the cooperation in could create more effective deployment of forces, better communication between them and faster (real time) sharing of information like images or videos to get ahead of the threat.
  • Enhancing alerting and evacuating of citizens during an attack by putting in place early warning systems and effective evacuation pathways. Potential innovative technology solutions could enhance the warning systems and evacuation pathways for specific public spaces.
  • Enhancing the existing knowledge and train forces specifically for protecting public spaces against terrorism, as anti-terrorism expertise is often missing at local government. There is a need of knowing were and how this knowledge can be obtained as well as how to train personal in the future.