The Traffic and Environmental Zone, commonly known as the "ring of steel", [1] is the security and surveillance cordon consisting of road barriers, checkpoints and several hundred CCTV cameras surrounding the City of London, the financial district at the heart of Greater London. The measures have been used since the 1990s to deter terrorism and other threats. [2] [3]
The "ring of steel" measures were introduced by Owen Kelly, then the City of London Police commissioner, following the Provisional IRA bombing campaign in London in the 1980s and early 1990s including attacks within the City such as the 1992 Baltic Exchange and 1993 Bishopsgate attacks. [3] The "Traffic and Environmental Zone" was officially established in 1993. [4]
The term "ring of steel" was borrowed from an earlier stage of the Troubles when the centre of Belfast was fortified against attacks; this fortified perimeter was also known as the "ring of steel". [5]
Roads entering the City were narrowed and small chicanes were created to force drivers to slow down and be recorded by CCTV cameras. These roads typically had a concrete traffic island with a sentry box where police could stand guard and monitor traffic. [3] City planners call these types of precautions "fortress urbanism". [6] Some roads were closed to traffic entirely. [7] Despite the term "ring of steel", the roadblocks and chicanes were actually created with concrete blocks, [6] sometimes plastic coated, that were wedged together.
Initially the sentry posts were staffed by armed police almost continuously. The ring of steel consisted of plastic cones and on-duty police officers which the locals described as the "ring of plastic". [8] It served the purpose of providing a visible sign to the public that the City authorities were taking the threats of more attacks by the IRA seriously. [8] This was replaced by more permanent structures consisting of concrete barriers, checkpoints and hundreds of video cameras. [6] Following IRA ceasefires the police presence was curtailed.
In 1996, the IRA attacked another area of central London by exploding a bomb at the Docklands, resulting in two deaths, 39 other casualties and £85 million worth of damage. The attack showed that even if the TEZ were able to hinder attacks inside the City itself, terrorists could instead target other high-value areas such as the Docklands or Westminster.
Staffed checkpoints began to be phased out after the IRA announced a ceasefire in 1994 and were no longer used after the 1990s. [9]
Following the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, and a reported increased terrorist threat to the United Kingdom, security was stepped up with occasional spot checks on vehicles entering the cordon, although not to previous levels. [3] In December 2003, the ring of steel was widened to include more businesses in the City. [3] This was as a direct result of a police report that categorised a terrorist attack on the City as "inevitable". Traffic entering the City is also monitored and recorded at the boundary of the London congestion charging zone, which covers a wider area.
Re-introduction of staffed checkpoints, restricted roads, as well as rising street bollards and crash-proof barricades were proposed in December 2016 to combat "hostile vehicle-borne security threat[s]". [9] The proposals were initially to be implemented by 2022, [10] but as of 2024, no new construction has taken place.
According to a 2011 Freedom of Information Act request, the total number of local government operated CCTV cameras in the City of London was 649. [11]
The number of surveillance cameras that are part of the TEZ is often wrongly quoted as 500,000. [12] This figure relates to Greater London, which has an area of 607 sq. mi. (1,572 square km) compared with the square mile (3 square km) of the City of London that the ring of steel covers. Furthermore, it has been acknowledged for several years that the methodology behind this figure is flawed, [13] but it has been widely quoted. [14]
The figure of 500,000 comes from a study by Michael McCahill and Clive Norris of UrbanEye published in 2002. [15] Based on a small sample in Putney High Street, McCahill and Norris extrapolate the number of surveillance cameras in Greater London to be 500,000 and in the United Kingdom to be 4.2 million. More reliable estimates put the total number of private and local government surveillance cameras in the whole of the United Kingdom at around 1.85 million in 2011. [16] [17]
Counterterrorism, also known as anti-terrorism, relates to the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, businesses, and intelligence agencies use to combat or eliminate terrorism.
Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of closed-circuit television cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television because signal is not openly transmitted, though it may employ point-to-point, point-to-multipoint (P2MP), or mesh wired or wireless links. Even though almost all video cameras fit this definition, the term is most often applied to those used for surveillance in areas that require additional security or ongoing monitoring.
Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as closed-circuit television (CCTV), or interception of electronically transmitted information like Internet traffic. It can also include simple technical methods, such as human intelligence gathering and postal interception.
MI5, officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), and Defence Intelligence (DI). MI5 is directed by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), and the service is bound by the Security Service Act 1989. The service is directed to protect British parliamentary democracy and economic interests and to counter terrorism and espionage within the United Kingdom (UK).
Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by local and federal governments or governmental organizations, but it may also be carried out by corporations. Depending on each nation's laws and judicial systems, the legality of and the permission required to engage in mass surveillance varies. It is the single most indicative distinguishing trait of totalitarian regimes. It is often distinguished from targeted surveillance.
Automatic number-plate recognition is a technology that uses optical character recognition on images to read vehicle registration plates to create vehicle location data. It can use existing closed-circuit television, road-rule enforcement cameras, or cameras specifically designed for the task. ANPR is used by police forces around the world for law enforcement purposes, including checking if a vehicle is registered or licensed. It is also used for electronic toll collection on pay-per-use roads and as a method of cataloguing the movements of traffic, for example by highways agencies.
The proxy bomb, also known as a human bomb, is a tactic that was used mainly by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in Northern Ireland during the conflict known as "the Troubles". It involved forcing people to drive car bombs to British military targets after placing them or their families under some kind of threat The tactic has also being replicated by Ulster Loyalist militants and was later adopted by the FARC in Colombia and by rebels in the Syrian Civil War.
The fortifications of London are extensive and mostly well maintained, though many of the City of London's fortifications and defences were dismantled in the 17th and 18th century. Many of those that remain are tourist attractions, most notably the Tower of London.
Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) is a technology for automatically reading vehicle number plates. The Home Office states ANPR is used by law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom to help detect, deter and disrupt criminality including tackling organised crime groups and terrorists.
The Lower Manhattan Security Initiative (LMSI) is a New York City Police Department initiative overseen by the Counterterrorism Bureau to increase surveillance efforts in Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. It is housed in the Lower Manhattan Security Coordination Center (LMSCC) located at 55 Broadway. The LMSI covers a 1.7-mile area from Canal Street to Battery Park, including the New York Stock Exchange, World Financial Center, former World Trade Center site, and numerous financial institutions.
The Bishopsgate bombing occurred on 24 April 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London's financial district, the City of London. Telephoned warnings were sent about an hour beforehand, but a news photographer was killed in the blast and 44 people were injured, with fatalities minimised due to its occurring on a Saturday. The blast destroyed the nearby St Ethelburga's church and wrecked Liverpool Street station and the NatWest Tower.
Ring of steel may refer to:
The occupation of Cullaville took place on 22 April 1993, when 12 armed members of the South Armagh Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) set up a checkpoint on the main crossroads of Cullaville, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, isolating the small village for a two-hour period, despite the presence of a British Army watchtower some yards away. The IRA men withdrew before the security forces in the area could react.
The use of electronic surveillance by the United Kingdom grew from the development of signal intelligence and pioneering code breaking during World War II. In the post-war period, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was formed and participated in programmes such as the Five Eyes collaboration of English-speaking nations. This focused on intercepting electronic communications, with substantial increases in surveillance capabilities over time. A series of media reports in 2013 revealed bulk collection and surveillance capabilities, including collection and sharing collaborations between GCHQ and the United States' National Security Agency. These were commonly described by the media and civil liberties groups as mass surveillance. Similar capabilities exist in other countries, including western European countries.
Mass surveillance is the pervasive surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population. Mass surveillance in India includes Surveillance, Telephone tapping, Open-source intelligence, Lawful interception, and surveillance under Indian Telegraph Act, 1885.
Mass surveillance in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the network of monitoring systems used by the Chinese central government to monitor Chinese citizens. It is primarily conducted through the government, although corporate surveillance in connection with the Chinese government has been reported to occur. China monitors its citizens through Internet surveillance, camera surveillance, and through other digital technologies. It has become increasingly widespread and grown in sophistication under General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Xi Jinping's administration.
There is a long history of terrorism in Europe. This has often been linked to nationalist and separatist movements, while other acts have been related to politics, religious extremism, or organized crime. Terrorism in the European sections of the intercontinental countries of Turkey and Russia are not included in this list.
The 2019 Lahore bombing was a suicide bomb attack on Wednesday 8 May 2019, one day after the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, outside Data Darbar in Lahore, Pakistan. CCTV footage of the blast showed that at 8:45 am, an explosion occurred outside Data Darbar’s second gate (Bukhari). According to the Punjab chief minister's spokesperson, Shahbaz Gill- the suicide bomber- was a 15 year old boy (Imran). The boy came out of a nearby fruit shop, walked to a police van, and detonated the bomb. The blast immediately killed 6 police officers,4 civilians, and injured circa 26. Once the explosion registered, the area went into panic causing emergency response forces to be delayed due to the large number of visitors. This led to three more people dying after the explosion, one civilian and a police officer outside the Data Darbar from wounds, and one civilian while aid was being administered (Imran). Soon after an evacuation was finished, security forces swept across the nearby area to establish a perimeter around the site, setting up checkpoints and alerting hospitals and other shrines(Riaz). Officials released the following statement: "Police were the prime target in this attack. We are collecting forensic evidence to ascertain the nature of the blast," said Ashfaq Khan, deputy inspector general of police operations in Lahore. After the perimeter had been set up, an initial probe taken by a heavy contingent of police, counter-terrorism units, and forensic officials showed that the bomb contained 7 kilograms of explosive material and was stored in the teenager’s jacket (Imran). The attack was claimed by the Hizbul Ahrar, a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, a movement that has been fighting the government for years. In a statement, the group said the attack targeted police and had been timed to avoid civilian casualties. However, police said a general security alert was in force but there had been no specific warning about a threat to the Data Darbar, which was protected by heavy layers of security(U.S Bureau of Counterterrorism).
The Finchley Road bombings occurred on 2 October 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated three time bombs on Finchley Road in north London, England. Telephoned warnings were sent six minutes beforehand, at approximately 00:26 UTC, but five people were injured from falling glass as a result of the blasts, and damage was caused to some shops and flats in the surrounding area. The three bombs were planted outside a Domino's Pizza restaurant, a travel agent, and offices of the St. Pancras Building Society. Later, anti-terrorist officers discovered and subsequently safely detonated a fourth bomb in a controlled environment, 1 mile (1.6 km) north of the initial bombings, in Golders Green. Two days later, on 4 October, the IRA detonated four more bombs in north London, two in Tottenham Lane and two more in Archway Road resulting in four injuries.
There is an estimated 400,000 privately owned and 10,000 publicly owned security cameras in New Zealand. They are primarily used for security, but are also used for monitoring traffic, weather, dumping, and parking, among others. Taxpayers pay approximately $5.4 million per year on the running costs of security cameras, and for the five years prior to 2022, spent $29.8 million on installation costs. At least three councils use facial recognition. The police have access to over 5,000 cameras owned by businesses, councils and government agencies, which can be accessed by 4,000 police officers on their smartphones. The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service is responsible for human intelligence collection in New Zealand.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link); Luppicini, [edited by] Rocci (2012), Ethical impact of technological advancements and applications in society, Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference, p. 83, ISBN 9781466617742 , retrieved 21 May 2015{{cite book}}
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