The numbers are grande. Venues at the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics were police and guards who used 465 metal detectors, 203 X-ray machines, 948 hand-held metal detectors and 583 closed-circuit cameras.
That's according to an analysis of the previous Games by Milan professor Chiara Forio and Giovanni Pisapia of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police.
"The Olympics did increase surveillance that went far beyond the venues and it was almost portrayed as necessary in order to renovate the city and to present it to the international community," Forio and Pisapia wrote in a paper for the Surveillance Games research workshop.
A three-ring security plan included controlled area buffer zones with random security checks on people and vehicles, a soft-ring around Olympic venues with roadblocks and checkpoints, and a hard-ring at venues, guarded by 2.7-metre barriers where all people, vehicles and goods needed to be screened. Airport-style security checkpoints regulated entry while CCTV systems and anti-intrusion detectors were monitored in venue security control rooms.
Vancouver can expect a similar set-up.
