Security - Olympic Games - London

[TOII]

Supposedly they now "need" our FBI to take control of their airports.

It is all about creating an "emergency" where foreign police can barge in for "security".

Of course, it starts out with a fairly mild "helping out" between two long time allies like USA and UK.

Ten years from now you will see bankrupt American cities sub-contracting out police to Mexico, China and India.


Somehow I'm not buying that they couldn't recruit enough rent-a-cops for the event, just because it is quite popular to work those sort of events just to "get in free", and it is summer with kids out of college, teachers on summer break, etc.

I'm pretty sure they are able to hire anyone from EU (who speaks some English).

Yeah, No.

[IrishGuard]

From what I've read they are 3000+ short and way more than 10% are no-shows They also didn't screen very well as one of the contract requirements was you had to speak English as one of your languages and many - many of their hires can't. I fault the Olympic Committee for not vetting the winning contractor as well as G4S for obviously not being able to fill the bill. One of the statements the G4S owner made was he "wanted to make a name" for himself.

Nick Buckles is not the owner of G4S, he is the CEO, however I think that when the dust settles this man will be checking the Job Vacancy Ads.

G4S is a multi-national public company with major security contracts throughout the world.

http://www.g4s.com/

[Curtis Baillie]

Supposedly they now "need" our FBI to take control of their airports.

From what I've read and heard on the news, it's the TSA who is sending some "plainclothes" staff to London to help with the large influx of traffic from the U.S. - not the FBI.

[Black Caesar]

From what I've read and heard on the news, it's the TSA who is sending some "plainclothes" staff to London to help with the large influx of traffic from the U.S. - not the FBI.

Right, no one is taking "control" of British airports lol. The FBI will have a presence in country though.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2...in-london-woes

The FBI is sending about two dozen FBI agents to London to work on Olympic security, according to two U.S. government officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the plans.

[FireEMSPolice]

I just heard that because of the low pay (barely above minimum wage), many G4S security officers are not showing up..lol. Hope that sends a message to G4S

[Jaeger]

What I find the most amazing part of this whole deal is the way the G4S leadership has not taken into account the age old fact of security officers being an extremely unstable workforce with high turnover rates. You can't expect people working with "barely" mimimum wages and exhausting work hours to be the most dependable lot.. especially when the security companies will hire just about anyone with a pair of legs and a head.

Hope that sends a message to G4S

I'm hoping that this outcome will send whoever was responsible for the security planning of the games the message that private security companies should not be relied upon on a large-scale level for security for events of this magnitude.

[PolarDeer]

What I find the most amazing part of this whole deal is the way the G4S leadership has not taken into account the age old fact of security officers being an extremely unstable workforce with high turnover rates. You can't expect people working with "barely" mimimum wages and exhausting work hours to be the most dependable lot.. especially when the security companies will hire just about anyone with a pair of legs and a head.

I kind of cringed at the stories of G4S recruiting 18 year olds with next to nothing previous work experience. Sure, they might be able to direct traffic and give customer service as well as screening the hordes of Olympic tourists coming in, but that's likely all they'll manage.

Actually last year I heard that G4S was considering recruiting old employees from other countries to work in the Olympics as attaining the SIA licenses in the UK doesn't require British citizenship (or subjectship :P ) but they apparently turned the idea down.

Short on staff and still having to take anyone with functioning legs and hands doesn't really provide for good PR.

[TOII]

Directing traffic safely and well actually takes training and experience, I would not want an 18 yo w/o it doing traffic esp not an event like this.

[Echos13]

I just heard that because of the low pay (barely above minimum wage), many G4S security officers are not showing up..lol. Hope that sends a message to G4S

The message comes back "Return to sender: no such person at this address".

[Pop pop]

Right, no one is taking "control" of British airports lol. The FBI will have a presence in country though.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/summer/2...in-london-woes

BC, Not just Airports, everything transit, bus, rail and including borders. The DHS, TSA agency, ie; TSA and Homeland Security Investigators (HSI OFFICERS) CBP, Behavior Officers, EOD Teams, and under cover Security Officers..