Policing of London Riots Strengthens Olympics Security Plan

(ATR) Britain's National Olympic Security Coordinator Chris Allison says police and emergency services learned lessons from last August's violent riots that will help beef up security for the Summer Games.

London's Metropolitan Police was stretched to its limits when rioting erupted in Tottenham after a man from the area was shot dead by police. The incidents triggered similar scenes of rioting, looting and arson in other cities and towns across England.

Allison, also Met Police assistant commissioner, told the London Assembly on Thursday that in 28 years of public order policing he had never witnessed such violence, scenes he aims to prevent a repeat of during the Olympics by deploying up to 12,000 officers on the busiest days of the Games.

"We have built into our plans additional [police] assets to try and make sure we have got more [police officers] out there to nip it in the bud if it should occur," he told the Assembly, noting that work was ongoing to better monitor social media networks that were used to help mobilize rioters last August.

Allison's comments came at a two-hour question and answer session before the Assembly alongside heads of London's emergency services and British Transport Police as well as Neale Coleman, director of London 2012 coordination for the Greater London Authority.

The Met Police's security operation for the Olympics, which is supported by up to 13,500 military personnel, is also informed by the 7/7 terror attacks on London in July 2005, the day after London was awarded the Games by the IOC. Suicide attacks by Islamist terrorists on public transport systems killed 52 people and injured hundreds.

At the time, there was criticism of the police and emergency services responses to the devastating assault on London due to communications breakdowns.

Allison said command structures and protocols had been improved, while Olympic security exercises over the past year, including a major mock terrorist attack on the Tube just two weeks ago, had helped refine security systems further with the Games in mind.

"The key part has been about getting that group together, people we haven't worked with before like event organizers [LOCOG], and working as a team," he said.

Cautioning that no two host Olympic cities were the same, the man leading the security effort for the 2012 Games pointed out that overall levels of crime had actually fallen during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and the 2000 Sydney Summer Games.

Commenting on the levelof police readiness, Allison described London as being "in a good place, but not complacent". "The Games are challenging. It is not going to be easy for us. We have to make sure we control the demands [for police deployment] operationally."

Allison stressed that the Met Police and other security agencies were already moving into operational mode for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June and the July 27 to August 12 Olympics and Paralympics that follow. Almost 600,000 spectators are expected to fill the Games venues every day.

"It's a progressive build-up. The National Olympic Coordination Center will open just before the torch relay in May and run through to Sept. 12," he said.

He admitted that the torch relay kicking off in Land's End on May 19 was a crucial test for the police and security services.

"How the torch relay is secured will set the scene for how the international community perceives us delivering a safe and secure Games," he told Assembly members.

"I am satisfied that our multi-agency planning and work with local authorities will ensure we have a fantastic 70-day torch relay," he added, noting that there were only 11 Fridays until the launch of the relay.

Coleman of the Greater London Authority said the Met Police and emergency services plan had factored in that every day of the Olympics "will bring its own particular pressures".

"Obviously the opening ceremony day is a high-profile day. It's an absolutely critical day for the Games and a day when I think there will be a lot of issues for us to manage," he told the Assembly.

He explained that the second weekend, a traditionally busy period withe the athletics events in full flow, as well as the road events would bring their own challenges.

"All the planning is very focused now, minute to minute, hour by hour, location to location," Coleman said of the meticulous preparations that are shaped around LOCOG's sports schedule for the Games.

Victoria Borwick, chair of the London Assembly's health and public services committee, said she and her colleagues were reassured to learn of "the sheer scale of planning and preparation the emergency services have put into managing the impact of the Games and how they have taken on board lessons from previous host cities".

Reported by Mark Bisson

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