The week after the London Tube and bus bombings, London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe said: “The tragic events of July 7 have affected us all but have also made Londoners and the bid team ever more resilient, determined and united to deliver the best Games ever.” Lord Coe will be chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG).
Crime designed out
Lord Coe stressed the key role security planners had played in London's bid and said that creating a new Olympic Park would mean secuity measures would be ‘designed in' from day one. As reported in the August issue of Professional Security , designing out crime at the Olympics site was a topic that Met Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair spoke of on Radio 4's Today programme on July 7 - as we know now, at about the time that the human bombers were parking at Luton, to take a train to London. Lord Coe also outlined plans for a Cabinet-level Olympic Security Committee, which would be chaired by the Home Secretary of the day and would include the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. London's candidate file - the 600 pages that the bidders delivered to the International Olympic Committee - discussed security as one of 17 ‘themes' - others being transport, finance, and so on. While the Home Office will have ultimate authority, a ‘security directorate' within LOCOG will draw up security plans. According to the file: “It [the directorate] will also co-ordinate the roles of the private security companies that will have an important role in public safety and security operations.” While police - the Met and officers from across the UK - will do policing, law enforcement and emergency response, the private sector will do access control and bag searches, and provide ‘spectator services staff'.
Numbers
The numbers of staff quoted suggest the Games will be arguably the biggest one-off event to secure of our time. The document says: “In accordance with long-standing procedures, the Ministry of Defence will also provide support to the security operation ... The national policing response will be supported by, and work in partnership with, the private security industry. Current estimates suggest 6,500 private security staff would be required. We are already working with our private security colleagues and have established that this figure is within the capabilities of their industry.” Up to 14,800 police officers may be needed - that is, one in ten of UK police. The file adds: “A third and vital element to the security package is stewarding and marshalling staff. These roles are envisaged to be conducted by approximately 10,000 volunteers ...” They would be trained in security awareness, first aid and evacuation procedures. Such reliance on volunteers to do basic ‘meet and greet' work such as giving directions was true of, for instance, the Sydney 2000 Games. How these volunteers would be vetted, the document does not say; instead, the file speaks of drawing on “the successful volunteer programmes put in place for the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002 and the IAAF World Indoor [athletics] Championships in 2003” in Birmingham. Screening of workers, in construction for instance, may be another knotty issue, the building (and building site security) trades in London among others already drawing heavily on eastern Europeans.
Comparisons
To give some comparisons: according to the document the 46 or so professional football games each weekend have 15,000 event stewards and 1,400 police officers; the Notting Hill carnival each summer has 12,000 ‘security personnel', the Wimbledon tennis fortnight 11,900 and the London marathon 850.
The Manchester Games in 2002 had 22,500 ‘security personnel' and the Euro 1996 football tournament had 18,500 (the document does not explain if by ‘personnel' it means only police or police and private security). Whatever the comparison, the scale of the Olympics - both over the weeks of competition and the years of building work on the Olympic Village for athletes and the stadia - does not come any larger in world sports events. What the document calls ‘ UK security agencies' are well-versed, the file says, in managing large sporting events. The Paralympic Games, the document adds, will have the same ‘intelligence-led' security, but scaled to the number of spectators.
Police side
The document did stress the police side of securing the Games. For example: “New Scotland Yard is already working closely with London 2012 to incorporate physical and technical security measures throughout the Olympic facilities; starting with the design and planning phases. These efforts will continue with the LOCOG to mitigate risk at every opportunity through high quality, robust security for every location and venue. ” On terrorism, the file stressed the UK 's record in security measures and minimising risks.
As Lord Coe told Radio 4 on July 27, for the last few Games - certainly in Sydney and Athens - UK police played a large part in the event security planning.
The document suggests two phases to security: the first, from now until 2008, is the planning, when the directorate will have four arms: ‘private sector and technical', ‘design build and legacy', planning, and ‘logistics and resources'. From 2008 to 2012 comes the ‘security implementation' when requirements proliferate - from guarding to patrols, stewarding and accreditation.
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