Effective command and control

The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) explains how control room operators can best prepare for a terrorist attack.

Imagine a situation where you work in a security control room in a venue that has large volume of crowds entering and exiting at certain times and a terrorist incident occurs. Is your control room ready to deal with this effectively? Are you prepared? Do the team know their roles and responsibilities?

In the event of a terrorist attack or a serious incident, effective command and control is critical to mitigating the impact of such an attack. In many cases, the security control room is key, and the ability to communicate effectively and to co-ordinate an effective response to an incident is essential.

For control rooms to effectively manage an incident, operators require a range of skills to be able to assess the rapidly evolving situation, make quick, but important decisions to protect crowds and members of staff from the threat, and to manage a coordinated response.

Research by the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) has shown that security control room operators are often unclear on what time-critical tasks need to be completed and whose responsibility each task is, resulting in duplicated effort at a crucial moment. NPSA’s SCR Operators course has therefore been designed to focus on the roles and responsibilities of operators working within a security control room to increase their readiness to deal with incidents.

This five-day course, created using specialist modelling software, incorporates several immersive exercises. The newest of these exercises is set within a stadium environment. It allows operators to practise responding to a realistic stadium attack situation where the operators’ responses affect the outcome of the incident. This helps enhance the operator’s understanding of the impact of any decisions and actions taken and prepares them for potentially the worst situation they might face in a control room.

As one participant commented: “There are control room courses out there, but they don’t go into all of the areas needed for staff to be able to get the knowledge of what goes on in an operational incident and enable them to deal with it swiftly and effectively.”

A separate one-day course for managers or individuals with overall responsibility for security control rooms and incident management is also available.

To save lives, minimise harm, and lessen the overall consequences of a terrorist attack on or in the near vicinity of a premises, it is vital to be prepared. NPSA’s 'Responding to Terrorist Incidents – Developing Effective Command and Control' guidance provides a wealth of information on the planning and preparation that security control room staff should undertake in advance of an attack.

NPSA have also produced a suite of further guidance documents, focusing on building relationships with internal staff, internal departments and neighbours, so that key elements are in place as soon as an incident occurs. Working with neighbours and staff alike, organisations can ensure that plans for responding to incidents is tested to make sure they work, including plans for building evacuation procedures during a terrorist incident.

Protecting people

One piece of guidance highlights the main security concerns around the entry (ingress)

and exit (egress) points at venues and events. The entry and exit points are particularly vulnerable because the start and finish times of events are usually predictable. Crowds can become targets of terrorist attacks, especially during events at popular venues where there will be increased crowds due to people entering and leaving. This can apply to any venue where crowds are likely to form during ingress and egress, including stadiums, concert venues, exhibition centres, theatres, nightclubs, shopping malls, theme parks and temporary festivals.

Keeping people safe during the ingress and egress phase of a venue’s operation is a key security challenge and being prepared is vital to combating any threat. Hostile actors could identify the ingress and egress points at a venue as ‘soft targets’ if security is poorly developed.

This guidance can work in conjunction with the See, Check and Notify (SCaN) guidance, which aims to help businesses and organisations maximise safety and security using their existing resources.

SCaN training empowers staff to correctly identify suspicious activity and know what to do when they encounter it. It helps ensure that individuals or groups seeking to cause an organisation harm are unable to get the information they need to plan their actions.

A range of security measures are key to mitigating the impact of a terrorist attack or major incident. NPSA has guidance available to help small business, large organisations, popular events and venues protect their staff and customers.

About NPSA

NPSA is part of MI5 and is the National Technical Authority for physical and personnel protective security. By making the UK more resilient to national security threats, we help to keep the country safe. NPSA helps organisations understand the range of threats they and the UK face, for example from terrorism, espionage, and state actors.

Based on our world-leading research and development programme and the latest intelligence, we provide guidance, training and tools to enable organisations to minimise their risk through how they operate day to day. NPSA works to keep citizens safe, protect the economy and the UK’s scientific and technological advantage, as well as the infrastructure.

In March 2023, NPSA absorbed the responsibilities of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), but with a broader remit, reflecting the fact that the threats the UK faces today extend far beyond critical national infrastructure.