How Digital Technology can be the Difference in Making Cities Safer
On September 11, 2001, the world changed with the devastating attacks on the World Trade Center in the United States. In the years after, the threat from terrorism has also morphed. As more resources have been poured into fighting terror, so have the tactics of terrorists changed.
While the 9/11 attacks were planned meticulously and executed by men trained for the deadly task, many of the attacks in recent years have been carried out by so-called lone wolves. They may be smaller in scale but harder to detect and prevent.
In eight deadly minutes in June 2017, three attackers slammed a van into people on the crowded streets near London Bridge, then went on foot knifing anyone they saw. They killed eight people and injured 48 others in the short time they were rampaging, before being stopped by police1.
In the few months before, a similar attack was mounted with a vehicle ramming through the Westminster area in London. And a bomb detonated during a concert in Manchester in the same year killed another 22 people.