Transcript excerpt
Carl Quintanilla, host:
It is day four of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, day three of competition. And if you're wondering whether
it's too late to get a ticket to your favorite event you're in luck. There are still plenty available. Why is that?
Well, security concerns have kept quite a few people from actually going to Salt Lake even if a corporate sponsor is
picking up the tab. Tom Costello is live in Salt Lake City
and will be with us every day right up until the closing
ceremonies.
Good morning, Tom.
Tom Costello reporting:
Good morning from a very cold Salt Lake, Carl. You know,
you're absolutely right... Providing security for the Olympics also
gives corporations the chance to strut their stuff...
At the Salt Palace, where the international media are
based, a Swedish company named Axis Communications has made
security state of the art. It digitized the old closed-circuit camera system, added 60 new cameras and
replaced videotapes with computer servers.
Mr. Fredrik Nilsson (Axis Communications):
Now, if
something happened to these facilities the police can, from
the outside, look in to what's happening in here. That's
one of the strengths of the technology.
Costello:
Indeed it seems there's a camera on every corner
here. And Olympic Security Command has access to it . . . .
Mr. Bill Rathburn (Security Consultant):
More per spectator, more per venue than we had in Atlanta, even.
Costello:
Bill Rathburn should know. He was in charge of security in Atlanta. Today he's a Sensormatic security
consultant.
Still, all these cameras and guns make it feel like Big Brother is always watching, something Rathburn says we'd
better get used to.
Mr. Rathburn:
I certainly hope that the war on terrorism is successful enough that we can back off of this
high-security profile for major events sometime in the future but I don't see it happening any time soon. Perhaps
not in my lifetime.
Costello:
