You've heard of the "military-industrial complex," a term popularized by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower.
Get ready for the "global-security industrial complex."
It's coming to Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics and it's a "business bonanza," according to co-authors of Surveillance, Capital and the Mega-event.
"In every institutional sector - military, health, security, criminal justice, entertainment, leisure and entertainment - surveillance technologies have proliferated," according to UVic doctoral student Adam Molnar and Queen's University sociology professor Laureen Snider.
Honeywell scored a $30.5 million RCMP contract to provide cameras and detectors for venue perimeters while Contemporary Security got a $97.42 million deal to provide 5,000 screeners for airport-style venue checkpoints.
The Joint Intelligence Group identified six main threats of Vancouver 2010: financial security/organized crime, terrorism, public order, emotionally disturbed persons, information technology security and public health.
Olympic security costs have mushroomed since Sydney 2000's $180 million and Salt Lake 2002's $310 million. Athens 2004 - the first Summer Olympics after 9/11 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq - set a record. But those Games were not flawless.
"Indeed, even US$1.5 billion of spending at the Athens Games in 2004 was not enough to stop a man in pink tutu from physically disrupting the marathon race," say the pair.
