Police ops centres for 2010
Themba Gadebe
4 June 2007The South African Police Service will establish three types of operational safety and law enforcement centres for cities, stadiums and routes leading to hotels and entertainment venues during the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Police spokesperson senior superintendent Vish Naidoo said that Venue Operational Centres, Joint Operational Centres and Mobile Operational centres would be set up as part of the 2010 safety plan.
"The Venue Operational Centre will be based in stadiums to ensure security and safety during the games. Police officers, emergency services, traffic and metro police, private security and intelligence core will be deployed in the centre as part of the joint operational safety plan," he said.
While the Joint Operational Centres would be responsible for citywide safety, Mobile Operational Centres would be on standby to attend to any situation such as crime scenes.
Naidoo said the mobile centres would be equipped with armoured vehicles, as well as bomb disposal and dog units. In addition aircraft installed with video cameras would capture activities on the ground and feed them to the Joint Operational Centres.
He explained that the stadiums would be divided into different perimeters: "We will have the actual stadium plus the inner and outer parameters, each of which will be allocated tight security, where search and seizure of restricted and prohibited items would be done."
People without tickets would not be allowed to loiter outside the stadiums, or within the outer perimeter.
"We also have no-traffic and pedestrians zones around the stadiums. There will also be no air traffic during the actual matches except landing zones for police helicopters," Naidoo said.
He emphasised that hotels and entertainment spots would receive high-priority safety, while protection would be offered to the Fifa delegation, teams and referees.
"Some people feel that it is too much, but it’s not. There is no 'too much' when coming to the lives of the people," he said.
Naidoo there will be designated routes to guide fans to the stadiums, right until they reach the entrance closest to their allocated seats.
"Fans will be channelled to different entrances to avoid congestion and confrontations between rival fans," he said.
Police officers would also closely monitor entertainment areas until after they were cleared, in preparation for similar situations to the 2006 Fifa World Cup in Germany, where people congregated in fan parks.
"From the experience in Germany, people stay in entertainment areas until the next day," he said.
Naidoo added that the Police would also receive assistance from the police forces of other participating countries, and help overcome differences in languages.
Source: BuaNews
