Barcelona City Council, through the Manager’s Office for Safety and Prevention, is teaming up with Lyon City Council to carry out the Secur’Cities project. The goal of the project is to ensure security at venues hosting large events or crowds in the face of potential threats, mainly terrorist attacks.
A technical delegation from the City Council, headed by the Manager for Safety and Prevention, Maria Teresa Casado, and representatives from the City Police and the Barcelona Fire Service, travelled to Lyon on 30 June to exchange experiences for better protection in public spaces. The goal is to share common methodologies and good practice, providing a response to the need to improve prevention and responses in incidents with multiple victims, following the terrorist attacks of 17 August 2017.
The Barcelona delegation presented a study on vulnerable spaces in the city and the measures to be applied, as well as all the resources and procedures available to the City Police to tackle a potential terrorist attack.
The goal of the European Secur’Cities project is to propose a new urban landscape design which reduces the vulnerability of public spaces and offers shelter in the case of active shooters, prevents vehicles running over crowds and mitigates the expansive wave of an explosion. Protecting public space in this way will mean better safety for mass events, offering a higher level of protection against attacks. Another cornerstone for the project is the modernisation and adaptation of urban video surveillance systems in the digital era, with the conversion of analogue systems to digital ones giving the city an innovative security model.
Secur’Cities is funded by the Internal Security Fund – Police (ISPF), created by the European Commission. It provides support for cities strengthening their security, recognising the role of local authorities when it comes to prevention policies and protection against the terrorist threat.