High-Tech Security at Public Events discusses security measures for large public events like marathons. While screening checkpoints and surveillance cameras may help catch suspects after an attack, they have limitations for prevention. The sheer size of events makes them difficult to secure through technology alone. Instead of expensive security systems, authorities are now relying on crowdsourced photos and videos from attendees' phones to improve surveillance after incidents like the Boston Marathon bombing.

1. High-Tech Security at Public
Events
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2. High-security measures of public events like the Marathon may not be
feasible--and they could make things worse Which is more
intrusive: security screening and metal detectors every few blocks, or
a drone flying high above it taking video of every little thing you do?

3. "The best thing would have been a dog," explained by professor of
terrorism and organized crime. "They don't need to be at a choke point;
they can move through the crowd.“
In the wake of the tragedy at the Marathon security experts are
pondering the use of bomb-sniffing dogs and other tools of the security
trade during public events, at the risk of making those events as much
fun as catching a flight. Ultimately, the costs of such extra measures—
both in terms of money and loss of privacy—would have to be weighed
against their actual ability to prevent tragedies.

4. The complicating factor in making public events like the Marathon
safe is their sheer size. Scanning equipment, checkpoints and
other technology already familiar from airport screening would
not have done much to prevent this marathon attack; instead they
merely displace the threat to where the queue for that security
screening masses people.

5. Although video footage is useful in catching suspects after the fact,
using them as a preventative tool is far harder—except for
whatever deterrent effect such conspicuous technology may exert.
Human eyes can only see so much, and analytic software has not
advanced to the point where it can detect a threat, although such
software does now know enough to cue a human operator to pay
particular attention to what's happening on one monitor versus
another.

6. But instead of installing expensive camera and monitoring equipment, the
Boston bombing and its aftermath may point the way to crowd-sourcing
that security function. Authorities have called for all those who have
photos or videos of the event from cell phone cameras to submit them.
"There is this crowd-sourced camera system that covers a lot of
everything, most of the time," says terrorism expert Brian Jackson,
director of RAND's Safety and Justice Program. "It's less expensive to rely
on a camera that exists,” in the form of an i Phone, “than to put in a
camera system."

7. Thank you