RIOTERS planning to rampage through Redhill or Reigate should think of changing venue. With a little help from computer war games, the Surrey Police are acquiring the skills to counter their every move. The war game programs, developed by the armed forces for planning military operations, are coming soon to the respectable towns of London鈥檚 commuter belt.
Surrey Police will be the first force in the country to adapt war game programs for their own use. From September, senior officers will be encouraged to play computer games designed to teach them strategies for handling ugly crowds. And the force has not ruled out the possibility of bringing the games into action during real riots, helping officers to work out the best way to stop things getting out of hand.
鈥淚t鈥檚 about dealing with almost any situation, from burglars escaping, and drunks spilling out of pubs to full-blown riots,鈥� says Andy Thompson, head of the war games initiative at Surrey Police鈥檚 headquarters in Guildford. 鈥淧rovided you鈥檝e fed in the correct geographical information, it would be possible to simulate the behaviour of police and people being policed in any event,鈥� he says.
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The war games program the police are adapting is called Close Action Environment, or CAEN. It was developed at the Defence Research Agency鈥檚 Centre for Defence Analysis in Fort Halstead, Kent. The program recreates urban battle zones, with details such as trees, hedges, roads and fences. Human figures, vehicles, tanks and weapons can be added to the virtual landscape to represent combatants.
Players in the war game can move their forces around as if in a real battle. The game-playing is invaluable for commanders, who can try out different strategies before plumping for a particular course of action. They can view the scene as if from a helicopter, go down to ground level to see it from a combatant鈥檚 standpoint, and even go inside buildings to check the view from a particular window.
鈥淚t allows you to make the best use of the resources you have,鈥� says Janusz Adamson, head of the team at Fort Halstead adapting the software for police use. Unfortunately, there is not enough computing memory available to accommodate the whole area covered by Surrey Police. 鈥淲e will have to be selective, keying parts of rural areas where there might be unrest,鈥� says Adamson.