Police to be drafted in from Scotland to fill Olympics security gaps

 
16 July 2012

Officers from nine police forces, including Dorset Police, are being drafted in to fill the gaps in Olympics security left by under-fire firm G4S.

Home Secretary Theresa May has been forced to update MPs on the debacle as it emerged that police from nine forces were being drafted in alongside the extra 3,500 military personnel to help with venue security.

Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, the National Olympic Security Co-ordinator, said: "Nine venue forces have now deployed police officers to support security regimes at venues in their areas."

The forces involved include Dorset, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Northumbria, South Wales, Strathclyde , West Midlands, Thames Valley Police, and Greater Manchester Police.

With less than two weeks until the opening ceremony, ministers insisted the Games would be secure and dismissed the firm's failure to provide the promised 10,000 security guards as no more than a "hitch".

But hundreds of officers are now being deployed, in addition to the 3,500 servicemen and women who were called in last week.

Clive Chamberlain, chairman of Dorset Police Federation, said so far the Army has covered for the shortfall in G4S staff.

He said: "On a daily basis it's a lottery as to how many staff are going to turn up. The best they've managed is 15% not turning up, and on the worst occasions they have been 59% down. It's a fiasco, it's an absolute debacle.

"My biggest fear is that G4S are now panic-recruiting people to get as many people as they can into the organisation. Two weeks before the Games, we are going to have hundreds or thousands of people that are going to need to be properly vetted, that comes down to the police.

"What proper training will they have had before they start? It's very, very worrying."

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