Democratic Counterterrorism Protective Security: An Integrated Approach to Safe Cities
Benjamin D. Frasco1, Pernille H. Christensen1
- University of Technology, Sydney
Published in Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE 2024), edited by Ali GhaffarianHoseini, Amirhosein GhaffarianHoseini, Farzad Rahimian and Mahesh Babu Purushothaman. Springer Nature, Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, volume 591, 2025, pages 593 to 606. DOI 10.1007/978-981-96-4051-5_58.
Abstract
In the wake of notable attacks, such as the Lindt Cafe siege and the Flinders Street attack, there is a growing focus on counterterrorism in Australia. As terrorist attacks trend toward low-sophistication attacks in crowded places, public safety responsibility is increasingly shared by private and government stakeholders, including built environment practitioners. Designing the built environment to mitigate the impact of terrorist attacks, or reduce the possibility of attack, is known as counterterrorism protective security (CTPS) and is increasingly utilised in the public domain. However, existing counterterrorism policy documents in Australia provide limited public domain design guidance for CTPS design, hindering effective placemaking. Improper CTPS implementation can exacerbate collective neurosis, hinder accessibility, and impair aesthetics. If the experience of a public place increases anxiety or inhibits physical accessibility, it does not fulfil its function as a space for the exercise of the democratic right to participate in the public domain. Hence, we propose that CTPS implementation that promotes public participation in places be termed democratic CTPS. This paper is part of a larger study exploring the integration of democratic CTPS in the built environment, addressing the gap in democratic CTPS design guidance in the Australian context. This paper focuses on New York City (NYC) as a case study. NYC has experienced numerous high-profile terrorist attacks and has implemented various CTPS strategies. NVivo was used to facilitate thematic analysis of secondary sources including CTPS guidance, publicly accessible CTPS project documentation, academic research, and news articles. The research provides insights to help policymakers inform CTPS guidance documentation in Australia.
Keywords
Session
Presented in Track I, Saturday 9 November 2024, 11:00 to 13:00, room WA 224 A, Auckland University of Technology. Session chair Dr Mathias Valenzuela.
How to Cite
Frasco, B. D., & Christensen, P. H. (2025). Democratic Counterterrorism Protective Security: An Integrated Approach to Safe Cities. In A. GhaffarianHoseini, A. GhaffarianHoseini, F. Rahimian, & M. B. Purushothaman (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE 2024) (Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, Vol. 591, pp. 593–606). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-96-4051-5_58
About the Conference
Presented at SASBE 2024, the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, held in Auckland from 7 to 9 November 2024 and chaired by Professors Ali and Amirhosein GhaffarianHoseini, founders of GDI Academy. The version of record is published by Springer Nature; this page is the conference archive record kept by GDI Academy.