Smaller-Scale Security For Paralympics Makes Things Easier For Spectators

The Winter Olympics that wrapped up in Vancouver last month took place under a vast security blanket.

When the Paralympics get underway here Friday they’ll be under more of a security scarf.

That’s good news for anyone attending the Games because, except for the opening and closing ceremonies, it means no airport-style screening lineups.

About 15,500 police, military and private security personnel protected the Olympics from potential terrorist attack even though the threat level going into them was low.

Under the assumption terrorists are even less likely to attack Games dedicated to the disabled, fewer people will be used to guard the more modest Paralympics.

Only 750 RCMP officers, 500 Canadian Armed Forces personnel and a handful of private security screeners will be needed for the 10-day Paralympics, says Const. Mandy Edwards of the Olympic Integrated Security Unit (ISU).

With only 11 Paralympic sports and non-competition venues to secure, compared with 30 for the Olympics, fewer staff would be needed in any case, says Edwards.

It took 6,000 police from across Canada to protect the Olympics, but for the Paralympics, the ISU will draw officers only from British Columbia except for a few specialized units such as additional dog handlers.

The traffic checkpoint at Squamish, about halfway between Vancouver and Whistler, is gone.

There will be fewer road closures, though parking at all sports venues is still banned, and the marine security perimeter for waterside venues has shrunk, says Edwards.

The exception is the eastern basin of False Creek, adjacent to the Vancouver Olympic village, where only boats with registered moorage will be allowed.

The ISU is also considering whether to shrink the canopy of restricted airspace over Vancouver, site of only sledge hockey and wheelchair curling, and Whistler, home to three Paralympic ski events.

“There have been some discussions,” says Edwards. “Obviously everything’s been scaled back.”

Security officials have already dropped the requirement that charter, business and regional airline flights from smaller communities be pre-screened before flying into Vancouver, she says.

The 5,000-strong private security force that screened spectators and their bags at every Olympic venue will also be largely gone.

Pedestrian screening will only take place at the opening and closing ceremonies at B.C. Place stadium and at the Olympic villages in Vancouver and Whistler.

“But any other venue will be basically as if you were to go to a hockey game today or curling event today,” says Edwards. “It is going to be easier.”

The Olympic torch relay was one of the few problem areas for security officials, with protests or the threat of protests forcing several diversions in the cross-Canada run.

But the Paralympic torch relay, which began last Wednesday in Ottawa, will hit only 11 communities so it’s getting scaled-down security, bolstered by local police.

The bad news is the Olympic cauldron, which will be relit for the Paralympics, will be no more accessible than it was during the big show.

Organizers were forced to revamp security fencing around the international broadcast centre on Vancouver’s waterfront to make it easier for spectators to see and photograph the cauldron.

But the broadcast centre will remain fenced during the Paralympics, says Edwards, although these smaller-scale Games mean sightseers won’t be fighting Olympic-sized throngs to get a photo.

“The lineups will definitely be less and the crowds will be less,” she says.