G4S Cocks Up Security for Olympics

July 13th, 2012

Via: Guardian:

The depth of the crisis over G4S’s Olympic security preparations became increasingly clear on Thursday as recruits revealed details of a “totally chaotic” selection process and police joined the military in bracing themselves to fill the void left by the private security contractor.

Guards told how, with 14 days to go until the Olympics opening ceremony, they had received no schedules, uniforms or training on x-ray machines. Others said they had been allocated to venues hundreds of miles from where they lived, been sent rotas intended for other employees, and offered shifts after they had failed G4S’s own vetting.

The West Midlands Police Federation reported that its officers were being prepared to guard the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, which will host the football tournament, amid concerns G4S would not be able to cover the security requirements.

“We have to find officers until the army arrives and we don’t know where we are going to find them from,” said Chris Jones, secretary of the federation.

G4S has got a £284m contract to provide 13,700 guards, but only has 4,000 in place. It says a further 9,000 are in the pipeline.

G4S sent an urgent request on Thursday to retired police asking them to help. A memo to the National Association of Retired Police Officers said: “G4S Policing Solutions are currently and urgently recruiting for extra support for the Olympics. These are immediate starts with this Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday available. We require ex-police officers ideally with some level of security clearance and with a Security Industry Association [accreditation], however neither is compulsory.”

Robert Brown, a former police sergeant, told the Guardian that he pulled out of the recruitment process for the Games after seeing it close at hand.

He said: “They were trying to process hundreds of people and we had to fill out endless forms. It was totally chaotic and it was obvious to me that this was being done too quickly and too late.”

Another G4S trainee, an ex-policeman, described the process as “an utter farce”.

He added: “There were people who couldn’t spell their own name. The staff were having to help them. Most people hadn’t filled in their application forms correctly. Some didn’t know what references were and others said they didn’t have anyone who could act as a referee. The G4S people were having to prompt them, saying things like “what about your uncle?”

Research Credit: almaverdad2

2 Responses to “G4S Cocks Up Security for Olympics”

  1. dt says:

    A farce is believable. On the other hand, I think Cryptogon readers would agree acclimatizing local and visiting populations to a heavy police and army presence might be a matter of public policy. The fact the story appears in the ‘Guardian’ is relevant. It poses as the voice of ‘right-thinking liberals’ making it ideal to take a pop at corporate authoritarians. Meanwhile editor Alan Rusbridger takes his seat at Ditchley, the nearest thing to a British establishment. Everything the Guardian does is suspect, including the recent phone-hacking ‘exposé’ which appears to have been widely known of, and of which the Guardian’s own David Leigh partook, to no personal consequence.

  2. LoneWolf says:

    I am getting some background chatter on the topic that has been dormant since 2005/07.

    Wondering if it might be time to dust off the pandemic COG plans?
    I’ve been following Rivero’s alt news website in Hawaii since the spring of 2001.
    Cryptogon cross links his WRH website on the home page.

    His false flag scenario video published recently:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6v3iqluPSM

    I hope he is wrong.

    Beware the closing ceremonies in London. We will know how true if some of the security are wearing N95 face masks.

    Captain Trips? derived from the book The Stand, by Steven King.

    This list supports the potential long range plan; proceed with caution on this link:

    http://www.stevequayle.com/dead_scientists/UpdatedDeadScientists.html

    Several at the Houston Medical Center have been targets over the years.

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