Overview
The SIAM decision support system will ease the complexity associated with the assessment of security measures and technologies. Where today decision makers have to oversee a wide range of relevant aspects from many different scientific fields and national as well as cultural interests SIAM will pass the needed information in a structured manner to the decision maker. It ties together those strands and reduces their complexity by providing a number of guidelines and a database for easy decision making.
One major impact is that SIAM will continue to close the gap between the perspective of preventing or disturbing criminal threats and the perspective of potential freedom infringements associated with many security measures and technologies.
Furthermore by conducting four case studies featuring a significant level of security measures and technologies SIAM integrates the practical experience with such technologies into the decision support system. As it will be flanked by extensive literature reviewing and the gathering of the wisdom of Europes leading security and civil rights experts the practitioner perspective will be extended by state of the art knowledge.
Beyond that SIAM is building an actor network to initialise the relationships needed for sustained cooperation and future fruitful interaction in the field of security. Participative elements such as stakeholder conferences open up the security field to a wider public and include more actors in the process.
Funding
Results
Enhancing security technology assessment
Security is a top priority for Europe's public transport and airports, so ensuring optimal security solutions are always in place requires a constant process of assessment. An EU-funded project has developed methodologies and guidelines that take into account various factors related to security technologies deployed at airports and public underground transport systems.
In the security sector generally, threats and the means for combating them are ever-evolving. That is why a constant process of assessment is required. However, once assessment has proven the efficacy of certain technologies or approaches, there is the risk that this can lead to inertia and irreversibility. In turn, it may become increasingly difficult to shift the status quo once a selection has been made.
The EU-backed SIAM (Security impact assessment measure – A decision support system for security technology investments) project set out to address this challenge. The project team used multidimensional assessments known as STEFI to evaluate the factors of security, trust, efficiency and freedom infringement.
SIAM developed an assessment support system that considers the complexity of technologies, economic features, cultural differences and societal dimensions. Based on four case studies in airports and public transport hubs and a comprehensive review of the state of the art, the system is designed to guide users in their assessment of security measures and technologies. This is achieved by structured questions on issues concerning security, trust, efficiency and freedom infringements.
The system also functions as a database, storing questions and their related assessment routes and making them available to various users. Different assessment scores are used to show the extent to which the experience, know-how and views of various stakeholders have been captured. The system can be downloaded for free via the project website.
SIAM worked to help policymakers, watchdogs, facility managers, and transport and civil aviation authorities cope with the increasing complexity of assessments by providing a systematic approach for measuring the potential impact of security measures and technologies.