ABSTRACT
Currently, the existing literature on providing security for major events on the scale of the Olympic Games is relatively scarce. In general, this lack of accessible information is not due to low levels of interest, but rather that detailed security information is oen not made public (Samatas, 2007; ompson, 2008). Further, the expertise gained through the exercise of planning and executing a major security project may be too valuable to share openly. Indeed, many host nations use the Olympic Games as an opportunity to substantially upgrade their security infrastructure and gain knowledge and technologies that can be marketed globally in the aermath of the Games (Boyle & Haggerty, 2009). erefore, while there is an enormous legacy value that accompanies each successive Olympic Games, there is the risk that some of the most valuable lessons learned through securing these events will be inaccessible to future planners who could potentially make costly and time-consuming mistakes that could have otherwise been avoided had information been available. It is the goal of this chapter to add legacy to a growing body of knowledge on major event security by highlighting the most impactful lessons learned during the planning and execution of the security project for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
