????2005年7月7日，就在倫敦獲得2012年奧運會主辦權后第一天，恐怖分子對該市公共交通系統實施了連環爆炸襲擊，56人因此喪生。為防止悲劇再次上演，保護約2.5萬名參賽運動員及其家屬、教練和官員（以及約70萬名觀眾）的人身安全，迄今為止安保費用支出已經逾16億美元。而9/11之前的悉尼奧運會，該項費用僅為1.796億美元。

????某些隱私權鼓吹者已經在質疑這筆巨額納稅人資金的使用效率。隱私權組織No2ID的活動經理詹姆士?貝克指出，雖然安裝了虹膜和指紋掃描系統，一位來自通俗小報《太陽報》的熱心人士還是在5月份將一枚假炸彈成功帶入了奧林匹克公園。貝克也質疑當局能否迅速地利用監視技術網絡以發揮其效用：在2009年，倫敦的1萬個車牌掃描儀中的某幾臺捕捉到了彼得?查普曼駕駛的汽車，而他當時已經因縱火、盜竊和違反其性罪犯身份要求而被通緝。但警察窮于應付該監視系統帶來的諸多線索，并未注意查普曼的出現。兩天之后，他強奸并殺害了一名通過Facebook認識的女孩。

????貝克也擔心在奧運會閉幕之后，監視系統將繼續存在并被底層官員濫用。他指出英國政府已經在使用反恐權力獲取電話記錄，并秘密地給公民錄像，以檢查他們是否清理狗屎及按規定日期倒垃圾。

????不管每個英鎊有沒有被合理使用，奧運組織者也不會節約任何安保費用。今夏，倫敦將成為一座防御堡壘，英國皇家海軍最大的航母、臺風戰斗機、飛行狙擊手、超過2.3萬名保安人員（包括1.35萬名英軍士兵）都將出動保護，而新增的大量攝像頭鞏固了倫敦作為全球監控最嚴密的城市之一的地位。依照一份價值3020萬美元的合同，美國安保公司Rapiscan已經交付了2700多臺掃描儀，僅奧林匹克公園一地就可提供每天高達20萬人次的機場級別的安檢。前身為Securicor的英國保安公司G4S負責雇傭私人保安，執行所有的搜索和掃描任務。為了快速雇傭和培訓超過1萬名場地保安，G4S的合同已經超支到驚人的4.48億美元，引發了議員們的憤慨。

????On July 7, 2005, one day after Londoners received word that the city would host the 2012 Olympics, terrorist bombs tore through the public transit system, killing 56 people. To prevent a repeat attack and protect the roughly 25,000 athletes, family members, coaches, and officials attending (along with roughly 700,000 spectators), spending on security has topped $1.6 billion. Sydney's pre-9/11 Olympic security in 2000 cost only $179.6 million.

????Some privacy advocates have questioned the efficacy of such huge outlays of taxpayer cash. James Baker, the campaign manager for the privacy organization No2ID, points out that in May, a concerned workman at The Sun tabloid was able to smuggle a fake bomb into the Olympic Park in spite of spite of iris and hand scanners at the site. Baker also wonders if authorities will be able to use the web of surveillance technologies quickly enough to be effective -- he points out that in 2009, several of the more than 10,000 license plate scanners around the country detected the car of Peter Chapman 16 different times -- he was wanted for arson, theft, and violation of his status as a sex offender. But police were inundated with hits from the system and did not follow up. Two days later, he raped and murdered a teen he met via Facebook.

????Baker also worries that after the Games are over, the surveillance tech will remain -- and be abused by petty bureaucrats. He notes that local governments in the U.K. have already used anti-terrorism powers to obtain phone records and secretly videotape citizens to see if they are cleaning up after their dogs or taking out the garbage on the right day.

????Whether or not every pound is well-spent, games organizers have spared no security expense. This summer, the city will become a fortress, protected by the largest aircraft carrier in the British Royal Navy, Eurofighter Typhoon jets, flying marksmen, more than 23,000 security personnel (including 13,500 British soldiers), and an array of new cameras added to a city that was already among the world's most heavily surveilled. As part of a $30.2 million contract, the American security company Rapiscan has delivered over 2,700 scanners to provide airport-level security for up to 200,000 visitors a day to the Olympic Park alone. Administering all of the searches and scans will be private guards hired by the U.K.-based security firm G4S, formerly known as Securicor. In its rush to hire and train more than 10,000 guards to provide venue security, the G4S contract has swelled to a whopping $448 million dollars, sparking outrage in Parliament.