Glasgow Games Security Tops £90m Mark

The Commonwealth Games security will be the biggest security event ever seen in Scotland, costing a total of more than £90m. Although the Games are well underway, and there has been little trouble to report, the whole security event has not gone off without a hitch, while some high profile athletes have voiced their opinions that they are unable to travel around freely away from the athletes village.

Although the security event is being led by Scottish Police, it is also utilising the Armed Forces, prison officers, transport police, and private security firms. It recently emerged that chiefs were being forced to draft teenagers in to fully staff the security event, a move which security experts have said will increase the security threat of the games.

Although G4S are involved in providing some of the security for this games, it is not they have left the event understaffed, with many people voicing concerns that adverts were still being for stewards just a week before the opening ceremony; adverts for people aged 18 years and above, with no security training, and that would receive a single day of training to help them point people in the right direction and ensure that people did not go where they weren’t supposed to. The primary security efforts are being controlled from a central security office in Govan, and all of the groups being used to provide security and emergency services are being coordinated from this one spot.

Just a week before the Games began, a number of staffing agencies were tasked with finding security guards and stewards for the games. The pay offered was as low as £7.45 per hour, and those that took up the mantle would receive a single day’s training. The training would be used to ensure that employees were not left flapping around, although they would only be required to point people in the right direction and prevent them from entering areas that they shouldn’t.

Organisers had said that they wanted Glasgow to be known as the Friendly Games, and there have been few, if any, reports of violence or other security threats so far.

Security officers and prison guards are being used at venues to complete airport style checks on those that enter, while security was set to be tight outside venues and in the surrounding areas. Less security was expected in the area between venues, but CCTV, surveillance, and rapid response strategies are in place so that if anything were to happen, the appropriate services could be on scene quickly and ready to take the appropriate action.

The total cost of security for the event is estimated at being more than £90m. This includes payments to 17 private security firms, including G4S who were at the centre of the security shambles at London 2012, when they failed to meet the quota of security guards that they were set and the Armed Forces were called in at the last minute to help ensure that the event went off without any problems.
 
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