Joint Services set up CWC operations centre
- stadium security officers deployed
Guyana Chronicle
March 24, 2007
A JOINT Services operations centre has been set up at Police headquarters in Georgetown to channel information that would be required to the agency responsible for regional security, the Government Information Agency (GINA) reported yesterday.
Police Commissioner Henry Greene told GINA the centre will be feeding “security-related happenings to the regional operations centre in Trinidad and Tobago”. He said the Joint Service operations centre will be in force around the clock for the CWC period.
GINA said Mr. Greene also announced that from this weekend members of the Joint Services will be conducting both river and land patrols.
“They will be carrying out roadblocks, searches…in the city, East Coast, Berbice, at the stadium and practice sessions locations. We will also be combining our marine (services) with that of the Joint Services to carry out waterways patrols. All of this is to let visitors and citizens feel safe and ensure they are safe.”
According to the agency, Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of law enforcement, Heralall Mackanlall assured that the Bomb Disposal Unit will be carrying out searches on all the venues related to the matches. The airport will be searched before each flight arrives, he said.
“Practice venues, hotels and vehicles that will be used by TOMS (Teams, Officials, Media and Sponsors) will be swept for any explosive device by our officers. We will also be carrying out searches at the airport before each flight. They will also be CID patrols in business areas and other areas like nightspots. We will do all that we can to ensure that we have a crime-free event,” Mackanlall said.
Commander of ‘A’ division and head of the security sub-committee for CWC Paul Slowe announced that the ranks trained by Oriel Solutions to provide adequate security at the stadium were deployed yesterday.
“Given the fact that the first team arrives (today)…these officers were deployed (yesterday) to ensure that everything moves smoothly during the matches…we are anxiously waiting to show that we will make this thing work. I want to assure that senior ranks will be at the stadium during all the matches to coordinate,” Slowe said.
GINA said more than 300 private security employees and police ranks have been trained in several areas, including crowd control, preventing fire hazards, and maintaining an internationally acceptable level of hospitality.
It said the Immigration Department is confident it will be able to ensure hassle-free movements of persons travelling in and out of Guyana during the matches.
“Like the other host countries, this will allow us to maintain the control of persons going in and out. International and domestic passengers will be separated. The domestic passengers will have on wrist bands and will pass through Immigration faster,” Deputy Chief Immigration Officer George Vyphius said.
The new advance passenger system that is in effect is faster, he said.
“Recently, we had two international flights where 600 persons were cleared within 45 minutes. This shows that it will be done more speedily with the domestic passengers, so we have it covered. We are ready at the Immigration,” Vyphius assured.
Guyana will be hosting its leg of CWC from March 28 to April 9.