Protecting people in outdoor spaces

Sarah-Jane Prew

In the Covid-19 era there is greater emphasis on operating outside as much as possible, whether from open air bars and cafés, or just from queuing to access indoor facilities. While protecting people from Covid-19 through social distancing, these changes can lead to exposure in other areas, specifically terror attacks.

Having people outside leaves them more vulnerable to attacks such as Vehicle as a Weapon (VAW) attacks and, according to Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), the risk to pedestrians from vehicle attacks remains a realistic possibility during the Covid-19 pandemic.

When considering gatherings or queues, groups of people should be positioned, where possible, away from areas where vehicles have access and particularly away from roads offering direct approaches into the queue or group. If traffic management allows for the restriction of traffic during peak times, or for footpath widening or speed restrictions then this is ideal. Working with neighbouring businesses to have some co-ordination over groups and traffic control can be very effective.

If people do need to gather along roads then keeping them as far away from the kerbside as possible is advised, avoiding long queues or large groups all in one location. Separate seated groups or an area for people to wait to join a queue can be considered to minimise the attractiveness of large numbers of people. This will also help prevent infection spread.

Queues and groups can be orientated so that people can face and have warning of an approaching threat. If in an open space, groups can be orientated so that they are at right angles to a potential vehicle approach.

Obviously if vehicle barriers are present then these can be used to position groups of people behind them where possible. Temporary barriers can also be deployed but these need to be suitably rated and placed a sufficient distance away from the gathering to incorporate penetration in the event of an attack. Street furniture can provide some small deterrent effect and so is useful to a small degree although it must be realised that it will not offer any significant physical protection.

One of the most valuable and inexpensive methods of deterrent is clever local communication that is designed to reassure the public that the locations have been protected with a simultaneous double message to the hostile, warning them that security is in place. Obviously these messages need to be worded such that they are credible but do not give away information that is useful to a potential attacker.

Additionally, vigilant security behaviour from staff will show any hostile individual watching and planning that the location has security; alert employees are just as likely to spot and report suspicious activity and indicate that it is not worth considering an attack here.