SMT Online News Analysis

G20 Summit provides stern test for security services

01 Apr 09

As the world’s leaders prepare to descend on London Docklands’ ExCel Exhibition and Conference Centre, the security services are expecting a battle royal with scores of protestors. Brian Sims casts a critical eye over security provisions for the G20 Summit.

By Brian Sims

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s little G20 gathering tomorrow – dubbed by some the ‘Save The World Summit’ – is going to be a pretty brief affair. The world leaders’ breakfast runs from 8.30 am through to 9.45 am. A discussion involving lead finance ministers and central bankers concludes at 1.30 pm, luncheon at 2.30 pm, there’ll be final discussions and summations and closure at 3.30 pm.

That all adds up to four-and-a-half hours of formal talks plus time spent backslapping over three meals (including a ‘no expenses spared’ Downing Street welcoming dinner this evening). For that little lot, the good old British taxpayer will not receive much change from £20 million.

Far be it from me to say that this is rubbing salt into an already gaping financial wound for us ‘normal’ folk. Wouldn’t a videoconference have been a damn sight cheaper and more secure into the bargain?

Short on substance though this event may be, it’s creating tremendous headaches for the police and security services. While the ExCel Conference Centre is relatively easy to protect – with dedicated police marine units on hand to assist the security effort – the expected protests at central London locations pose a more difficult problem.

Flexibility and mobility will be vital

In truth, the so-called ‘flashpoints’ will almost certainly be realised well away from the main targets for protestors, either in the streets surrounding them or at other as-yet-unidentified spots.

One thing’s for sure. The police and the Security Service will have to be both flexible and mobile throughout today and tomorrow. A major concern with public order policing is if the Boys in Blue police the last problem they encountered in a similar vein to this one then they’ll likely be caught out. Protestors are innovative people. They’re often intellectuals. It stands to reason the police must be equally intuitive.

To prove my point, an anthropology professor involved in planning the ‘G20 Meltdown’ (more of which anon) has been suspended by his university after allegedly speaking in a radio interview about “hanging bankers from lampposts”. The University of East London has confirmed that an investigation is being conducted into comments offered by one of its lecturing brigade.

For the duration of the G20 Summit, the Metropolitan Police Service will be joined by officers from the Essex, Sussex and Bedfordshire forces in an operation involving 2,500 officers and costing close on £10 million.

Commander Bob Broadhurst, who’s in overall charge of the operation, told SMT Online: “Everything is up for grabs today and tomorrow. The protestors’ main aspiration is to clog up the City institutions as best they can. We must ensure they don’t succeed in their aims.”

‘Financial Fools Day’ dawns

Activists have dubbed today ‘Financial Fools Day’, and would appear to have been planning disruptions at both the Bank of England and the European Climate Exchange. At last count, about 2,000 demonstrators were expected.

One of the highest profile protests will be an impromptu 24-hour Climate Camp that campaigners are hoping to bring to the Bishopsgate and Threadneedle Street areas. This desire follows on from similar camps established at Heathrow Airport, North Yorkshire’s Drax Power Station and the Kingsnorth Power Station in Kent.

Back in the City, the ‘G20 Meltdown’ organisation – which claims to represent nigh on 70 different protest groups – has said: “We will reclaim the City, thrusting into the very belly of the beast – the Bank of England”. Plans are believed to be afoot for no less than four columns of protesters marching on the Bank.

In addition, a group styling themselves as the ‘Four Horsefolk of the Apocalypse’ plan to converge not only on said Bank of England but also the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square. I’ll bet that news was a joy for President Obama as he alighted Air Force One at Stansted Airport yesterday evening.

Ambush-style tactics to the fore

The Metropolitan Police Service is fully expecting protesters to use ambush-style tactics to block roads by holding unannounced ‘picnics’, ‘tea parties’ and sit-down protests in busy thoroughfares. In days gone by, I can well remember the protesters dumping sand in the street and bringing along innocent children with buckets and spades as a foil to play in it.

Controversial policing units – otherwise known as forward intelligence teams, whose members are armed with cameras – are being deployed to monitor the protests.

The Stop The War Coalition is holding a demonstration in London today, calling for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. Commander Simon O’Brien – one of the senior command team in charge of policing security around the G20 Summit – commented: “It's fair to say that this is one of the largest, most challenging and most complicated operations we have ever had to deliver.”

Commander O’Brien continued: “G20 is attracting a significant amount of interest from so many varied protest groups. There’s an almost unprecedented level of activity going on. The nature of this event focuses on the complexity and scale of operations over a number of days.”

If we look at the potential for trouble, the crystal ball doesn’t offer very pleasant images. Irrespective of the genuine protestors, we have a disgruntled public fed up with the Government’s lack of control over the country’s finances, there’s an IRA car bomb ‘missing’ somewhere and, of course, al-Qaeda wanting to use a dirty bomb. They might – God forbid – view tomorrow as a window of opportunity for wreaking their customary havoc.

Social media: staying one step ahead of the game

As I said, the militant demonstrators are savvy, not to mention technology literate. They’ll make full use of social media tools like Twitter and text message alerts in a bid to stay one step ahead of the massive police operation.

Messages already circulating among demonstrators emphasise the importance of being able to keep in contact with each other because protest plans are likely to change on a minute-by-minute basis. Other messages are urging protesters not to bring knives or illegal drugs to this particular ‘party’.

As the protests pose a threat to public order rather than to pure security, the police cannot use telephone intercept powers to discover what the demonstrators are planning. How frustrating that must be. This means there’s the very real prospect of the Met having to play ‘cat-and-mouse’ around and about London as they attempt to stop incidents from escalating in their severity. Not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.

Creation of a hostile environment

The security operation to protect delegates attending the G20 Summit, then, is far from being a straightforward one. The police are necessarily having to prepare for every possible eventuality – from terrorism through to riots – and they must manage a crowd ranging from novice protesters to hardcore anarchists.

According to Andy Hayman – former assistant commissioner for special operations with the Metropolitan Police Service – the trick is to create a hostile environment that will deter criminal or otherwise anti-social behaviour, while at the same time reassuring the public.

That’s a difficult balance to achieve, and is far easier mentioned than actioned. Too many police officers can prove to be intimidating or provocative to the anarchists, while too few simply opens the door to troublemakers.

The first job the Metropolitan Police Service will have done in preparing for G20 is collate intelligence. Officers will have been scouring the Internet and other ‘open sources’ (like the aforementioned Twitter and Facebook, not to mention anti-capitalist web sites) for weeks on end. They will know that the majority of protesters are law-abiding, but by the same equation they’ll have identified some activists intent on violence and disorder.

What makes the G20 demonstrations rather unique is the range of pressure groups planning to protest. As stated, protesters concerned with climate change, capitalism, war and globalisation are to be represented. It will be crucial to locate the agitators and those orchestrating disorder as quickly as possible. To this end, police spotters will be stationed at key vantage points, while undercover officers mingle among the protesters.

Security for the Docklands ExCel Centre

Disorder has to be nipped in the bud otherwise it can escalate at frightening speed and put the police on the back foot. If needed, “snatch squads” will be used to remove troublemakers.

The Number One priority is to secure the ExCel Centre. The good news there, of course, is that there’s an expanse of water on one side and it’s relatively easy to construct a Ring of Steel around the building itself. This will involve police marine launches, surveillance cameras, barriers, checkpoints and cordons.

Once that lot’s in place and ratified, the security focus will shift towards protecting the delegates’ journeys in and out of the venue. With the venue secure, protesters are likely to demonstrate elsewhere, creating the aforementioned cat-and-mouse chases across central London. Demonstrations outwith the Capital cannot be ruled out if the City is inaccessible.

Plans for four simultaneous marches on the Bank of England are a genuine headache for the Security Service and the police. A protest on the move is harder to police than any stationary rally. Protesters will be prevented from running as this raises the risk of injury to innocent bystanders, the police and other demonstrators.

“Tactics to herd the crowd into a pen, known as ‘The Kettle’, have been criticised heavily before now,” explained Hayman, “yet the police will not want groups splintering from the main crowd. This would stretch their resources.”

‘The Kettle’ tactic was used to stifle protests on May Day 2001, when thousands of activists were successfully corralled in London’s Oxford Circus area.

Hayman told SMT Online: “We can expect mounted police officers to guide the crowd along the routes. Reinforcements able to deal with any eventuality will be on standby in side streets. The Control Room at Lambeth is going to receive pictures from across the City, and from cameras in the air. Despite months of preparation, today and tomorrow are going to be very tense affairs.”

Surveillance plans thrown into chaos

Security planning was thrown into chaos on Monday night when it emerged that the entire network of central London’s wireless CCTV cameras would have to be switched off on the back of a legal ruling.

The Department for Transport (DfT) ruled that Westminster Council’s mobile road cameras – which account for one third of the authority’s CCTV network – “do not fully meet the resolution standards required” and would have to be switched off.

Westminster Council was told to shut down its 60 wireless cameras because the images they capture are allegedly not clear enough. Under the legislation, traffic cameras must be capable of recording at 720 x 576 pixels.

Westminster’s wireless network of road cameras, introduced last year, is the only fully digital traffic enforcement system operating in the UK. However, recording is at 704 x 576 pixels – hence the DfT’s enforcement branch, the Vehicle Certification Agency, has expressed its concerns.

An urgent legal effort is in motion to overturn the ruling, amid genuine fears that the decision would undermine the massive security operation put in place for the meeting of world leaders.

The fear is that any shut down could seriously hamper the G20 security operation, which will require police to secure the safe passage of dozens of motorcades carrying delegations of VIP diplomats and leaders.

Essential tool in combating disorder

While the cameras are mainly used to monitor traffic in the West End, Belgravia and Knightsbridge, the Council claims they’re also an essential item when it comes to combating social disorder. Having researched and written about these cameras and their deployment some years ago, I can corroborate that assertion.

Round-the-clock live footage from the cameras – which monitor roads around the West End, Belgravia, Trafalgar Square, Knightsbridge, Oxford Street and London’s main bridges – is also accessible to police and the intelligence services.

Apparently, Westminster Council discovered only last week that its £15 million network of wireless cameras doesn’t meet the minimum resolution standards laid down under the Traffic Management Act, which comes in to force today. Thankfully, the authority’s 160 fixed and permanent CCTV cameras aren’t affected.

The Council is in contact with transport secretary Geoff Hoon in a bid to overturn the legal ruling issued by his DfT. A Westminster Council cabinet member has been quoted as saying: “The DfT’s position is ludicrous and stuck in the Dark Ages.” Certainly, the timing of this whole affair couldn’t have been any worse.

View from the private security sector

First Security (Guards) is one City-based solutions provider that has lived through the atrocities of 7/7 and been forced to cope with demonstrators trying to disrupt some of its clients’ operations. What do they feel is the ‘word on the street’ about today and tomorrow?

“Everyone hopes, of course, that any protests will be orderly and lawful, but our experience of 2001 suggests otherwise,” commented Mike Crump, the company’s managing director.

“These high-profile events have a tendency to attract any number of people who have no intention of remaining within the law. There is contingency planning, of course, and preparation might be described as being of two kinds.”

Crump continued: “The immediate – or event-specific – where we have been working with our clients and the relevant authorities to secure the position against the threat posed by these protests. The second is longer term and more general, but still critically important, and emanates from the continuous development of our security officers’ skills in unison with our overall incident management capabilities.”

Advice for those working in and around London

Richard Bingley – the executive director for security and policing at London First – conducted a briefing last week with chief superintendent Ian Thomas (commander of CO11) and the City of London Police’s assistant commissioner Frank Armstrong. They’ve jointly produced an information sheet for those working in and around the Capital both today and tomorrow.

Although the Met is keen to emphasise that it’s ‘business as usual’, they are advising City workers to:

• think about dressing down

• keep mobiles and BlackBerry devices well charged with key numbers inputted

• consider possible disruption and high people volumes coming through and congregating at transport hubs such as Liverpool Street, Fenchurch Street, Bank and Cannon Street, in addition to interlinking roads

• be extra vigilant around visitors and access points – do not wear ID badges or lanyards when outside the office

• ensure locks, keys, entrances, exits and emergency exits are fully-functioning

• be aware that glazing near demonstration areas may be vulnerable

• not drive or park cars in or near any of the planned protest routes

Timeline for the planned protests

• Wednesday 1 April: ‘Financial Fools’ and ‘Fossil Fools’ demonstration, and the City Climate Camp begins in the main thoroughfares of the City

• Wednesday 1 April: ‘Fossil Fuels’ and ‘Stop The War’ protests in Westminster and Trafalgar Square, at the same time as official receptions for state delegations in central London

• Locations: ‘Stop The War’ (Bank), Climate Change (Bishopsgate), Land Reclaimers (Cannon Street), Financial/Money (London Bridge/North side)

• Wednesday 1 April: ‘Stop The War’ march moving from Grosvenor Square (2 pm) through to Regent Street, Haymarket, Pall Mall and on to Trafalgar Square. Trade Unions, Free Tibet and more anti-capitalist focus groups plan to move from central London and the City out to east London to protest against the G20 Summit

• Thursday 2 April: Climate Camp and protests move east from the City towards the ExCel Exhibition and Conference Centre in London’s Docklands.

What to make of it all?

Certainly, the stakes for the G20 Summit could not be any higher: policymakers must show that they are taking the necessary steps to stabilise the global financial system against a clamour for more action to avoid a protracted recession.

Tomorrow’s main event should come with a Public Expectation Warning. In other words, we’ll not be waking up on Friday morning and finding clear skies, with no sign on the weather radar of the world’s worst financial storm for, literally, generations.

Let’s hope we don’t awaken to the gruesome images and aftermath of another terrorist outrage, either. Be vigilant. Be aware. Don’t be afraid to report anything suspicious. You might just make a difference… and perhaps save lives as well.