Policing for Olympics in Birmingham
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X8605900407 |
| Published date | 01 October 1986 |
| Date | 01 October 1986 |
| Author | Stewart J. Bint |
| Subject Matter | Article |
STEWART J. BINT
Journalist.
POLICING FOR
OLYMPICS
IN
BIRMINGHAM
Policing is uppermost in the minds of the people who plan to bring
the 1992 Olympic Games to Birmingham. When the International
Olympic Committee finally decides where the four-yearly games
will be held in six years time, its members will be remembering with
a heavy heart the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972
games in Munich, Germany. And when
that
decision is made in
October this year, Birmingham will be high on the list of cities
aiming to take the honours.
Since Munich, security has been among the key demands
that
any city bidding to host the Olympics must meet in full,
and
although it is something those organizing the Birmingham bid are
taking very seriously, they are determined
that
it will be sufficiently
low-key to avoid wrecking what they regard as the greatest show on
earth. The security plans for Birmingham have already greatly
impressed the
l.O.c.
and
sports officials all over the world. When
Birmingham's official bid was placed with the Committee, security
formed a lengthy
and
detailed part of it.
It
is now more
than
18 months since a team of senior police
officers from the West Midlands force started to work out an
overall security strategy for the Olympics.
It
was then February
1985
that
Birmingham first announced its intention to bid for the
games.
As well as talking to police chiefs in Munich where the massacre
had occurred, to see what practical lessons had been learned, they
have also had lengthy discussions with security staff in Los Angeles,
where the last Olympics were held. Another part of their plan has
been to carry
out
an in-depth survey of security arrangements in
other cities bidding to hold the 1992 games,
and
they reckon
Birmingham's are much better.
The security
and
policing chain will start at airports
and
seaports
throughout the country,
and
will link into tight security measures in
Birmingham - in particular the Olympic City at the National
Exhibition Centre
and
other venues
and
there will be a totally
secure cordon
around
the Olympic Village itself. Those measures
should ensure
that
all competitors will find themselves in a
completely protected environment.
In its first offocial documentary bid to the group which decides
whether Birmingham finally gets to host the games, or whether the
honours fall to one of the other hopeful cities: Barcelona,
Amsterdam, Belgrade, Brisbane
and
Paris the British team says the
336 October 1986
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