As security co-ordinator for the XVII Commonwealth Games – held in Manchester last July and August – Chief Superintendent Bill Morrell is justly proud of the success of the security operation put in place for what was the biggest ever sporting event to be held on home shores. “There were no major problems at all,” stated Morrell. “Everything ran exactly as we had planned it.”
Such a confident statement after so resounding a triumph – both in terms of Great Britain’s medal-winning performances and lack of incident in and around the clutch of venues used. Perhaps this reveals a level of relief matched only by the degree of trepidation felt beforehand that all security measures would run like clockwork.
What’s clear about the perceived success of the security operation is that it relied in part on a cloak of silence being drawn over the methods used and the contingencies put in place for the event. SMT readers who scanned our initial feature on the Games (‘Games without frontiers’, SMT, July 2002, pp26-30) would have recognised that Manchester 2002, organisers of the Commonwealth Games, were giving precious little away to the media prior to the Opening Ceremony. Now, though, as promised we can reveal what worked in practice.
Almost astonishingly for so large and visible a logistics operation, it appears that only a couple of suspect packages were found. These were dealt with very swiftly by the Army’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) Unit, and found to be innocent.
There were also a couple of bomb hoaxes, but Chief Superintendent Morrell was dismissive of them. “They were probably down to some people who had had a bit too much to drink, and thought it might be a giggle.”
Not a laughing matter if you’re the person receiving the telephone call, of course.
Security systems in use
CCTV naturally played a huge part in the surveillance operation. As we mentioned in the pre-Games feature, ADT Fire and Security installed 54 Pelco cameras in the main City of Manchester Stadium, each one boasting 26:1 zoom capability (rendering them powerful enough to provide full screen pictures to help the police with identifying individuals had it been necessary to do so).
In addition, ADT installed a Minerva fire alarm system, an intruder alarm network (supplied by themselves) and 70 hard-wired security telephones strategically positioned at various points around the stadium for use by the security officers and event stewards on duty in case their own radios malfunctioned. Thankfully, no such problems arose. Although the ‘in-house’ system wasn’t required, it will remain in place for use by Manchester City FC’s security team when the club moves from its current Maine Road home to take up residence from next season.
Everyone who entered the City of Manchester Stadium was subjected to an airport-style search, with their belongings sent through a Rapiscan Security Products ‘mag-and-bag’ scanner. Punters had to walk through archway metal detectors, with the security team touting hand-held scanners for additional security checks.
There was only one reported incident of stolen tickets being in circulation, but the individuals concerned were soon arrested when they tried to enter the arena with them. “Whether these were the people who had actually stolen the tickets or had innocently bought them from someone else is open to question,” added Chief Superintendent Morrell.
“Nonetheless, the system worked well. The stolen tickets were identified as soon as they were presented” (‘What’s in a hologram?: secure ticketing for the XVII Commonwealth Games’, SMT, July 2002, p30).
VIP security in focus
With VIPs in attendance every day – including four separate visits by Her Majesty The Queen and the daily attendance of the Duke and Duchess of Wessex, who were staying locally – members of the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) were constantly needed to escort VIPs on site and check out the areas to be visited.
Trained sniffer dogs were drafted in, together with security experts and police personnel from 29 other forces around the country in what was a comprehensive manned security operation.
The VIP seating areas were constantly monitored by CCTV, and the images relayed back to the local police headquarters. In addition, just prior to the Games starting Manchester City Council opened a brand new, state-of-the-art CCTV Operations Centre in Beswick. The innovative Centre received and displayed images from more than 40 cameras spread across East Manchester, not only covering the Sport City complex but also residential areas to boot.
The new system is so sophisticated that, should any incidents occur and then move on away from view of the static cameras, mobile CCTV cameras would follow the trouble by transmitting pictures – via radio waves – back to the central monitoring station. It also provides higher quality pictures, being based on modern digital rather than analogue recording.
System installation was project-managed by Faber Maunsell and provided by Technology Solutions. The company’s project manager Steve Parry told SMT: “The Commonwealth Games was a very exciting project for us. We think we devised a ground-breaking scheme using the very latest digital surveillance technology. The CCTV Operations Centre features the most up-to-date plasma touch screen technology which makes for a much better working environment so far as the security monitoring officers are concerned.”
Surveillance from above
Members of the GMP were always confident that they had put plans in place to cover all eventualities. Not only were extra staff drafted in, but an additional helicopter was brought into service to continue observations of the entire area should GMP’s own equipment fail.
Interestingly, a fixed wing aircraft was bought to help with aerial observation – providing an additional deterrent to any security incident that could have occurred during the ten days of major sporting competition.
Showsec International – part of the International Crowd Management and Security Group, and employed by Manchester 2002 to crowd manage the 27 venues – drafted in 3,500 members of staff and volunteers for the Games.
In all, the company’s operation involved 39,000 shifts covering 470,000 man-hours of crowd management services. Over 2,000 members of staff were trained to NCFE Level 2 standards, with 118 trained to Football Stewarding Qualification level, while 718 individuals were schooled in the art of static guarding.
To ensure the security of everyone attending the Games, Showsec created four ‘sterile’ areas with the use of x-ray machines and 435 trained staff to monitor the City of Manchester Stadium, the Athletes’ Village at Manchester Metropolitan University, the International Broadcast Centre and the Accreditation Centre.
Superintendent Dave Thompson of Greater Manchester Police – the man tasked with overall responsibility for policing East Manchester, which incorporates the main Sport City complex built for the Games – remains delighted with the way the entire security operation panned out.
“We had a contingency plan in place for just about every eventuality, but I’d say we only had to use about a twentieth of those plans,” said Superintendent Thompson. “The only incident we didn’t contemplate or have a contingency plan for was the flooding of the River Medlock. In the end that was dealt with quite easily,” The apparent lack of any problems associated with crowd management has been attributed to the excellent Public Address announcements, all of them very closely observed.
Superintendent Thompson added: “There were obviously vast numbers of people here who were new to the area, and had no idea where they were going. We did expect they’d be more vulnerable. That said, many of them heeded the advice that they should use public transport wherever possible or walk. If anything, we over-estimated the number of people who’d be driving and under-estimated the number of individuals who’d arrive on foot.”
Superintendent Thompson was quick to point out that this did put pressure on the smaller ‘mag-and-bag’ points, causing queues to build up. “That’s where the helicopter and aeroplane came into play, as the pilots could spot congested areas and we could then redirect the flow of people to another entrance,” said Superinten-dent Thompson. “The accreditation scheme worked really well.”
Statistics tell the story
The success of the GMP operation is evidenced by the fact that there was only one robbery, four vehicles stolen and one car broken into during the entire event (in spite of the fact that no less than a staggering 80,000 people were entering and exiting the stadium and milling around the East Manchester area on a daily basis).
“That represents a much better record than we can manage on a typical Saturday when Manchester City are at home,” added Superintendent Thompson.
Deliberately, vehicular access to the City of Manchester Stadium was severely restricted. A vehicle arresting system had been installed to stop any unauthorised access, and so prevent any attempts to ram the barriers.
Devised by Rod Burton-Chambers of Halifax-based Scorpion Arresting Systems, the design is viewed by many industry commentators as one of the best on the market (boasting, as it does, a tail that flips up and makes contact with a vehicle should the barrier be rammed at any stage).
“As the barrier is pushed over, the tail comes up to a maximum of 300 cm which means that all kinds of vehicle will feel its impact,” suggested Burton-Chambers. “Not only that, the barriers are designed to transfer the force of the impact back to the vehicle. This means that the vehicle will be a total write-off”. Luckily, the system wasn’t put to the test during the Games.
Even the paramedics prepared for the worse case scenario but – thankfully – didn’t have to enact their plans. Emergency workers were provided with equipment to combat any terrorist attack, including decontamination chamber suits in the event of a nuclear or chemical agent alert.
A word from the organisers
The only utterance so far from Commonwealth Games organisers Manchester 2002 is that they will not comment about their own security operations… except to say that they were a great success.
A spokesperson said that the body is “preparing a report on all security aspects which will then be put before the Board. Only then will the findings be made publicly available”.
One report that should make for very interesting reading.
