Decision support for incorporating counter-terrorism design innovations into public places

Due to the prevailing threat of terrorism both internationally and within the UK, the British government has recently redeveloped the CONTEST strategy for countering international terrorism into a new and robust form known as CONTEST2. As part of this strategy, the UK government is encouraging those responsible for the protection of the public and ensuring the resilience of public buildings and crowded public areas to incorporate Counter-Terrorism (CT) measures where appropriate. However, it is apparent that there has been a lack of investment and ‘buy in’ from some key stakeholders. This is due largely to: client scepticism about the use of obtrusive, highly visible and unattractive solutions; a lack of informed guidance; differing opinions on the severity of the perceived threat from terrorism; and poor awareness of the cost-benefits of such measures. The outputs from a two year project, that has utilised a pluralistic methodology, are presented in the form of a web-based Decision Support Framework (DSF). The DSF has been developed by three English universities in collaboration with the British security services. The main purpose is to ensure that good practice in the design of effective and acceptable resilient public places can be more widely adopted. The DSF achieves this by providing individuals involved with the planning, design, construction, operation and management of public places with informed guidance on the necessity and use of CT measures; and supporting their operational activities towards the structured and proportionate integration of CT solutions into the varied design, build, operation and management processes. An evaluation of the DSF suggests that it promotes the innovation of passive and more acceptable CT measures, whilst simultaneously maintaining public safety. This greatly promotes the equal weighing of total expected benefits of CT measures against the total expected costs.