Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Railway stations can, in a great number of cases, be classified as ‘Crowded Places’ and therefore represent attractive potential targets for terrorists. The principles of Situational Crime Prevention which centre on delay, detect, deter, and deflect remain the basis upon which counter terrorist security is based aiming to make a station more difficult or unwelcoming for a terrorist to operate within, or reducing the impact of an incident, should it occur. The use of the Operational Requirement (OR) process is highly recommended to ensure that cost-effective, relevant, and proportionate physical security measures are implemented. This approach is described here and represents current best practice. This article seeks to identify how design can be used to reduce the risk and impact of a terrorist attack using explosive devices and how elements of a station design can contribute to this, while at the same time enhancing overall crime prevention.

Keywords

design against crime crime prevention through environmental design design models design process situational crime prevention operational requirement counter terrorist security

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Newman

Defensible space, 1973 (Architecture Press, London) (access date April 2011).

Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure, available from www.cpni.gov.uk .

Heal

Laycock

Principles, issues and further action. Situational crime prevention: from theory into practice, Heal

Laycock

. 1986 (Home Office Research and Planning, London).

Griffiths, H. QC Pugsley, A. Prof. Sir and Saunders, O. Prof. Sir. Ronan point flats (Report), 1968 (Housing and Local Government, London).

Brighton. The Independent: 1994: See also Thorpe and Gamman. Liberty versus Safety: a design review. University of the Arts, London, UK.

Cohen, N., Gattuso, J., and MacLennan-Brown, K. Publication No. 28/09: CCTV Operational Requirement Manual 5.0, 2009 (Home Office Scientific Development Branch, London).

Home Office. Working together to protect crowded places, 2010 (Home Office, London).

Home Office. Safer places: a counter-terrorism supplement, 2010 (Home Office, London).

10.

Home Office. Protecting crowded places: design and technical issues, 2010 (Home Office, London).

11.

TRANSEC LT. Responsibilities of Transport Security’s Land Transport Division. TRANSEC LT. available from www.dft.gov.uk (access date April 2011).

12.

National Security Advice Centre. available from www.mi5.gov.uk (access date April 2011).

13.

UK Resilience. available from www.interim.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ukresilience (access date April 2011).

Can railway station design reduce the risk of a terrorist attack or the impact of an incident?

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References