Security, RCMP, airport ready for Games

2015 Canada Winter Games CEO Stuart Ballantyne hopes security will be the most uneventful aspect of the two-week sporting extravaganza.

"We prepare so that we're ready but hopefully we don't have to do any work when it comes down to the Games, that they will be well attended and everybody will be peaceful and it'll be good," he said this week.

But if things go awry, there are people in place to handle matters. A combination of volunteers and hired personnel, the latter supplied by International Crowd Management Inc. (ICM), will do the work.

The volunteers will focus on pass control - a credential system that dictates where people can and cannot go - and ICM security guards will back them up. They will also be providing overnight security and extra security at the hotels where the athletes are staying.

In the months leading up to the Games, a committee was also put in place to develop response plans to deal with emergency situations.

Ballantyne declined to say how many will be working the security detail but did say spectators will likely see the same sort of presence they have witnessed at CN Centre where ICM has provided security since 2011.

With as many as 3,400 athletes and coaches, plus thousands of visitors expected to take in the Games, the venues won't be the only place where there is a crowd. In answer, the RCMP will beef up its presence, primarily through an integrated services unit with specialized training.

Like Ballantyne, Prince George RCMP Cpl. Craig Douglass declined to provide exact numbers. Several local officers bring experience from the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

A new batch of auxiliary RCMP will also be ready to help out. Auxiliaries are volunteers who assist with such tasks as crowd and traffic control as well as acting as an extra set of "eyes and ears" for the regular members.

Douglass said they weren't trained specifically for the Games but will provide a bonus presence during a busy time.

"They're trained to be volunteer auxiliary for 20 years if we can have them, there's no question about that," Douglass said.

RCMP working the Games will also begin using encrypted digital radios - which means the scanner crowd won't be able to listen in on their conversations - and in March, once the Games are over, the entire Prince George RCMP detachment will make the switch.

North District RCMP intends to have all of its detachments on the new system by 2017 while Prince George Fire Rescue is staying with the analog system for the time being because digital does not work well when fire fighters are wearing emergency apparatus.

At the Prince George Airport, a new baggage screening system is now in place that brings screening practices in line with American Transportation Security Administration requirements, eliminating the need to re-screen checked baggage arriving from Canada.