Police from nine forces drafted in to fill Olympic security gaps left by G4S (private security)

[alp227]

Source: The Guardian

Officers from nine police forces are being drafted in to fill the gaps in Olympics security following the failure of G4S to provide enough security guards for the Games.

The home secretary, Theresa May, was forced to update MPs on the debacle on Monday as it emerged that hundreds of officers from forces across the country were being drafted in to work alongside the extra 3,500 military personnel.

Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison, the National Olympic security co-ordinator, said officers from Dorset, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Northumbria, South Wales, Strathclyde, West Midlands, Thames Valley police and Greater Manchester had been deployed to provide security at venues in their areas.

In Manchester police were forced to step in after only 17 of an expected 56 G4S staff turned up at an Olympic team hotel in Salford at the weekend.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/16/police-forces-olympic-security-g4s

[1StrongBlackMan]

1. I was saying to Mrs. 1StrongBlackMan ...

this morning that as much as I like watching the Olympics (and viewing other live sporting events), there is no amount of money that would get me to actually go to a stadium where the event is being held.

It is too large a target for whatever group is trying to make a "statement." And there is very little that "security" can do about it.

[MIDNITERIDER1438]

2. Sad but how true.

Londistan is a magnet. This is possibly one of the worst locations to hold such an event. It almost makes you wonder if something will be let happen to take attention off the Libor scandal and austerity failure.

[suffragette]

3. Good article here with larger context of outsourcing, corporate welfare and using/abusing workers/

unemployed as occurring in G4S situation and more and more often in general.

Here's a small snippet. Well worth the full read (and it's not very long):


http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/voices/2012/07/its-companies-g4s-who-really-embody-something-nothing-culture

Another interesting debate, however, is to be had on the potential link between G4S’s failure and the scandal surrounding the deployment of "workfare" staff around the Queen’s Jubilee. The news of unpaid jobless being sent by coach from Bristol and made to spend the night under London Bridge was met with outcry. It is almost impossible to dismiss the collapse of such schemes under the weight of public opinion and the sudden G4S realisation that they will not be able to have the numbers promised, as mere coincidence.

~~~

We know that G4S is one of the participants in the DWP’s Work Programme from Freedom of Information request 3238/2011. We know that Close Protection UK – the company at the centre of the Jubilee fiasco – are themselves sub-contracted to G4S for Olympic fire safety stewards. We know that workfare placements for the Jubilee were offered as training with the possibility of lucrative Olympics jobs on completion. We know that G4S defended Close Protection UK as an approved contractor who required no further vetting. We know that back in February G4S were advertising Olympic Recruitment with the words “not a job vacancy but you might find it interesting”.

How many thousands of jobless were G4S planning to deploy, either directly or through sub-contractors, before workfare schemes became PR-toxic? Here is a company getting paid an average of £28,000 for each of the 10,000 employees required. With unemployment standing at 2.6m, it is incredible to suggest that staff could not be found and trained for such a well paid seventeen-day engagement.

Much more likely is that the company miscalculated in its attempts to maximise its profit, over-estimated its ability to do things “on the cheap” and the availability of free labour, and spectacularly failed. Another rocket fired into the side of the HMS Private Sector Efficiency from atop a London council block.

[sarisataka]

4. Um.... What's wrong with this picture?

He stressed G4S had only recently realised that it would be short of several thousand security guards.

"We are sure that G4S gave us the best information that they had at the time," he said. "So clearly for them it was as much a surprise as it was to us," he said.

I would be asking "Do I want security provided by a company that didn't notice they were thousands of personnel short for a small event like the Olympics??"

Just fire G4S and let the military do it. The money would be better spent and you know they will show up for work.

[turtlerescue1]

5. think you may be right.

[denverbill]

6. The company was paid $28K per person for a 17 day gig? Wow.

What a waste of money. That's $1600+ per day and they can't find enough staff because they only wanted to pay them $8/hour, or $64 per day?

The company was trying to take 96% of the proceeds as profit and pay employees 4%.

What a scam.