Law

The Olympic Games are a big event of summer and winter sports held every four years at international level, in which thousands of athletes vie with one another in a wide variety of games. The host city is selected through a bidding process about seven years before the event to be held in the particular city. The host city starts preparing for the games the moment they win the bid. It spends about billions of dollars for preparation for the games. Steps and tasks like construction of venues, transportation facilities and security arrangements are chalked out. Construction of stadiums where the games are to be played takes place. Training centers, gymnasiums are built for the players, for example, 31 venues were constructed for the Beijing Olympic Games held in 2008 with the help of designs of worlds best architects (The Olympic games, 1999).

Transportation facilities are important from the point of view of a big event to be held in a city. For this purpose, the citys transportation infrastructure is to be expanded. This includes construction of new roads, flyovers, subways, further addition of traffic lanes. To reduce the road traffic, railway services connecting new destinations are started so that the road traffic capacity is reduced to some extent. This would ease the transportation of athletes and people through the city. Along with these things, special attention is given to the airport facilities with the construction of new terminals. Environmentalists consider the pollution control as one of the important steps as this would ensure healthy environment and better air quality for the athletes, visitors from other countries and people living in that city. This can be done by restrictions on gas stations, vehicles, industries and construction site. These steps boost the host citys chances of becoming a successful host to a great extent. These steps need to be taken well before in advance as these steps cannot bring the desired effect overnight and can, in turn, mar the chances of the host and create its bad image on the minds of people coming from other countries for participating and witnessing the games.

The third most vital step for preparation of Olympic Games is arrangement of security. The main object of the security set-up is the checking of intentional or unintentional commotions. Unintentional disturbances can be because of indifference on part of human beings or unanticipated circumstances. The Olympic Games organizers try to develop a secure way to avoid intentional and unintentional disturbances and check that such disruptions dont take place again. Being the most spectacular event in the world due to its cause, it draws the anti-social elements to create disturbances at the Games. The host of the Olympic Games tries to tighten the security to that great extent that it cannot be breached easily by the foes of humanity. These terror strikes changed the definition of terrorism and revolutionized the concept of suicidal bombings. Even the individual Muslims not belonging to any terrorist organization inflict strikes showing their anger for the wars waged in Muslim countries under US leadership. These organizations have developed innovative and modern methods of causing death and destruction. So, the security agencies have to be very cautious about tackling any kind of terror strikes. They should be well prepared and trained to deal with terror strikes.

The situation that is pervading at global level and that which encompasses Olympic Games poses a serious threat to the Games. Every time Games are held, attempts are made not to let the repeat of 1972 Munich Olympics take place, in which nine Israeli team members were killed by terrorists. The consequences of the Munich Olympics came like a bolt from the blue, which put a question mark on the preparedness for the games by the local police and the security authorities. There were many lapses and weak links which lead to this incident. There were some lessons learnt from the Munich massacre. Firstly, there should be thorough verification of all those connected with the games like paid employees, office staff and volunteers. Secondly, there should be effective physical security. Thirdly, there should be an effective co-ordination among all Olympic officials concerned with security and administration. Fourthly, there should be well-tested crisis management drill to tackle any crisis. Fifthly, the security forces should be properly trained regarding use of equipments. Besides this, they should be taught how to deal with situation. Sixthly, an effective media management is necessary for preventing media from obstructing the operations of the security forces. Disruptions were also there during 1996 Atlanta Olympics. An important lesson learnt from the Atlanta Olympics is that there should be effective communication between control room and the police officers at the site and secondly there should be anti-explosive checks. Along with these, people should not make hoax calls or alarms (Raman, 2007).

There are various modus operandi used by terrorist organizations. So creating awakening to deal with different terrorists should be the necessity and goal rather than creating panic among the masses. One needs to be prepared mentally, technically and professionally to combat sensitive situations. Most of the times security forces are not prepared and dont anticipate well which leads to successful terrorist strikes. Comprehensive plans must be chalked out to cater to different scenarios like terrorist strikes at important buildings, hijackings, kidnappings, assassinations of very important persons and explosions.

There are some dos for the security authorities. Firstly, they should know what is happening inside and outside their country this knowledge can pose a grave challenge to the arrangement of security. Secondly, they should prepare themselves for various types of situations from mental, technical and professional point of view. Thirdly, they should be alert and mindful. Fourthly, they should avoid overconfidence. Fifthly, they should be in touch with the security organizations of their country and the countries which take part in the games, as a fool-proof arrangement comprises of a joint action at the global level.

Now question arises how to provide security to the VIPs, athletes and the general public. For the VIPs, there should be provision of highly trained bodyguards, escort protection services. Body armor products are another way of protection. In hotels where VIPs and athletes are staying during the games, access to restricted areas can be effectively controlled using a range of access control solutions like I.D. verification, biometric Security and advanced door locking systems and along with these Closed-circuit television(CCTV) cameras can be used. The passage of people and vehicles into private premises can be checked by using turnstiles, gates and barriers. Hostage and Kidnap Awareness Training can help vulnerable public to understand how to manage risk and react in dangerous situations. Panic Rooms, more commonly called Safe Rooms are increasingly being installed in homes, offices and hotels where people like athletes VIPs can keep them away from the peril of threat of kidnap or violence. Security system can be installed in the buses or vehicles through which athletes or VIPs are traveling by having the doors, flooring and side panels shielded with ballistic steel, heir windows protected with transparent armor, and the structural elements are reinforced to that extent that passengers can enjoy a high level of security.

In the buildings or hotels where the officials, athletes and VIPs stay, there should be fire alarms, emergency exits, heat and smoke detectors, flame detectors, automatic door and ventilation operations, audio and visual warnings, fire and gas extinguishing systems together with remote monitoring and fire brigade signaling systems. In buildings wherever necessary there should be safety and hazard warning signs. There should be proper medical alert systems.

To ensure the safety of persons, an extensive range of Security Screening products should be available for the detection of metal, weapons, narcotics and explosives. Baggage X-ray scanning techniques are used for combating terrorism. The terrorists prefer to hide bombs in the dustbins as dustbins are present at all the places whether they may be important or not so important, public or private and along with this, less heed is paid to them. So, explosion-proof dustbins are used nowadays. In case of a building catching fire, fire clothing should be there so that the people can wear them and come out of the building safely without any harm or damage to their body. Besides this, fire clothing should be of greater visibility so that the fire fighters can easily grab the sight of the people wearing the fire clothing through the smoke of the fire and take them out safely. All this is not possible without correct and professional design as this is an essential element to any fire, safety, security or defense solution and is key to ensuring that such solutions not only operate effectively but do so in an efficient manner and with the minimum amount of disruption (Westminster International Ltd., 2009).

The army, the soldiers and the local policemen must ready around the clock to be deployed at the site where any disruption is taking place, on getting the command from the control room. Special commandoes must be there for combating terror strikes. There are innumerable methods of checking terrorist threats. Last but not least, the purpose of checking terror threats is to make sure that the Games go on with a great level of security and peace without any disruption so that the host countrys image is embedded in the mind of the whole world.