By Salman Siddiqui/Staff Reporter

When the world comes to Qatar for the FIFA World Cup 2022, it will also bring along its security threats, former head of security of the London Olympics Andrew Amery cautioned yesterday at the World Stadium Congress 2013.
Amery, who gave a presentation on the topic ‘an insight into delivering safe and secure major events’, said the entire world’s eyes will be on Qatar when the mega event takes place.
“The international expectations will be massive. The world, especially the US, Israel and other Western countries will be closely looking at whether Qatar is ready to handle security,” he said.
He said the best way to deal with the threats was to prepare way ahead of time for all the possible scenarios and test the plans repeatedly over the years.
Speaking about his experience of managing the security at the London Olympics, he said the first and foremost challenge was to manage the different government agencies involved in matters of security.
Every agency, including the police, army and intelligence agencies would want to take the lead in the matters of security for the event, and the country must work out on a clear structure of command on how to deal with this important aspect of security.
He said that in the London Olympics, there was no one all powerful person who made the decisions on security, but in fact every decision was co-ordinated with all the stakeholders. As the head of security, Amery said his role was more of a coordinator and ensuring that the key decisions made were implemented.
There were 128 venues in the London Olympics for which about 21,000 security personnel were deployed, including about 12,000 private security personnel. More than 11mn people were screened and about 1,200 CCTV cameras were used in addition to the ones that were already in place at the venues.
But despite the massive security in place, it was ensured that the spectators didn’t feel that it was all a hassle for them to enjoy the game, which essential is what good security was all about.
Also, he stressed on the fact of hiring the right people for the job and advised that it was not necessary that if someone was a former police or military man would be the best person to manage the security of a mega event.
Amery said that they had tested their contingency plans from the guard on the street to the prime minister’s office repeatedly before the London Olympics took place. “You will struggle to deliver if you don’t prepare well,” he said.
Andrew Amery will be conducting a workshop today morning at the Torch Hotel on security management at mega events.






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