Democratic Counterterrorism Protective Security: An Integrated Approach to Safe Cities
- Publisher:
- Springer
- Publication Type:
- Conference Proceeding
- Citation:
- Proceedings of the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Built Environment (SASBE 2024), 2025, 591, pp. 593-606
- Issue Date:
- 2025-04-20
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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.
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