Mass Gatherings & Events 

Issue:  All major sporting events, especially those on a national or international scale, regardless of where they are held, pose a significant target for terror activities.  Recent operational surveillance experience across both indoor and outdoor events at the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada, indicates that event planning helps deter the possibility of these catastrophic events from occurring. 

Background:  Hundreds of thousands of people attend Major Sporting Events in the confined spaces of domed arenas or enclosed stadiums each year.  These include single high profile events such as championship games.  In some cases, it is possible to track the list of people attending such an event, in case there is an outbreak of disease, in order to provide treatment or other health-related actions, without incurring mass panic. However, in all cases where large numbers of people are gathered, the main security surveillance issue is to determine, in real-time, conditions that deviate from the normal aerosol environment in the facility, and to evaluate them quickly for potential natural or manmade threats.  Evaluation of these anomalous samples provides the scientific basis for forensic analyses and if necessary, healthcare actions. 

Discussion: The key to providing an enhanced security surveillance solution is planning for potential terror activities, while never falling prey to relying on a single solution.  Effective security options and responses at Major Sporting Events have to be thoroughly planned and properly integrated with multi-faceted facility operations, otherwise they can result in mass panic and actually inhibit required response actions. When sampling the air for prospective threats, a critical real-time foundational network of instruments strategically mapped and placed in vulnerable areas is a must.  But just as important is the expertise to be able to determine whether anomalous readings are actual threat signatures or not.  False alarms and inappropriate security responses need to be absolutely minimized.  An example of a networked instrumentation system which Dycor’s experienced analytical operators can deploy would include (but not be limited to) the following:

• Aerosol sensors capable of identifying threats such as: biological (including disease), chemical, radiological, and explosive;
• Particle sensing: tied into HVAC controls to isolate and control airflows;
• Aerosol samplers: high volume for instantaneous, and low volume for long term environmental monitoring;
• Forensic identification: quick response typing of airborne disease-causing agents;
• Secure Communications;
• Visual situational awareness picture;
• Meteorological sensing tied to threat mapping.

Summary:  At Dycor, we are instrumentation-agnostic.  However, as Defense Department Testers,  Systems Integrators, and Security Force operators,  we have considerable insight into which instruments perform best in different environments, including simultaneous instrumentation of several concurrent stadiums and venues at the Olympic Winter Games – one of the world’s largest sporting events.  It’s this expertise, combined with our years of international operational field experience that separates us from our competition, and validates our “Trusted Agent” role, for industry and government.