Policing in region to be cut for duties at Olympics

More than 10,000 police will be needed at the Games, including highly trained firearms specialists, search dog handlers and officers to protect sporting venues, airports and ferry terminals.

Yorkshire’s four constabularies will have up to 1,000 fewer officers available to police the region, and those that remain face longer hours with fewer rest days.

The forces, already shrinking because of Government funding cuts, are set to suspend all training and put tighter restrictions on leave to meet the challenge.

Police chiefs believe residents will see “little or no difference” during the 64-day operation, the cost of which will be met from a £600m budget agreed by the Government for security at the Olympics and Paralympics.

Security at sports venues is expected to be excellent but rank-and-file officers are uneasy over whether their ability to respond to incidents in Yorkshire will suffer.

Responsibility for ensuring enough officers are available lies with South Yorkshire Chief Constable Meredydd Hughes, whose force is also co-ordinating the region’s security operation for the Olympic torch relay.

“We need to have the capacity,” he said, “and the plans we have balance the needs of the local forces in Yorkshire and the Humber with the needs of the Olympic organisations.

“We are halving the availability of officers’ leave, we are suspending training and we may ask officers to work extended shifts.

“We will perhaps introduce different patterns to work and there may be activities which we temporarily halt during the Olympic period but, broadly speaking, we would expect front-line policing to appear little or no different to how it does now.

“In excess of 10,000 officers will be needed. The Metropolitan Police are taking a large amount of the burden themselves, but there will be opportunities for officers around the country to participate in the biggest sporting event that the UK has ever seen. We think we have got the balance right.”

Mr Hughes said specialist officers would be asked to work in the South on week-long deployments, comprising five days on duty and two days travelling. Different specialists would be needed at different times, meaning not all Yorkshire officers would be working at the Games simultaneously.

Precise numbers are unlikely to be decided until July or August, but Sgt Michael Peck, Humberside Police’s lead officer for the Olympics, said: “We are looking at sending about 120 uniformed officers down to London over the course of the Games to provide uniform patrols and support the smooth running of the event.

“In addition we will be sending a small number of officers with specialist skills, ranging from intelligence to search techniques.”

Humberside Police Federation chairman Steve Garmston, who represents rank-and-file officers from across the region at Olympic planning meetings, said Yorkshire’s forces faced “a really challenging time”.

With the summer months a busy time for policing community events locally, Mr Garmston said it was virtually impossible to predict what the Olympics’ impact on the region would be.

“It is needless to say the service we are used to is going to be reduced this time next year because of the budget cuts,” he added. “The simple fact is that having fewer police officers means having a lesser service.

“We have to support the Olympics – it’s an internationally renowned event and the eyes of the world are going to be on us. It has to be a safe and secure Games.”

huge counter-terrorism operation

Next year’s Olympics will require the UK’s largest ever peacetime policing operation, mobilising officers from every force in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, in addition to support by other emergency services.

The Government’s security strategy is based on four potential risks which the intelligence and policing operations have had to prepare for – terrorism, serious crime, domestic extremism and public disorder – as well as natural hazards. Areas seen to be at risk are not only the stadia and venues, but also training venues, transport facilities, the torch relay route and infrastructure, including computer systems.