| Local Content |
| Written by Scott Schmidt |
| Wednesday, 03 February 2010 09:31 |
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Scott Schmidt for the Sun Times Having the 2010 Winter Olympics descend upon home soil doesn’t just give an opportunity of a lifetime to athletes. Security needs are obviously elevated to unheard-of levels when the entire world gather and that means reinforcements are needed. And so, after submitting approved applications, a group of Lethbridge regional police and local RCMP are headed to the lower mainland for the biggest event on earth. “A posting came out asking for people to go to the Olympics and so I just applied and got accepted,” says Const. Denton Michelson of the Lethbridge regional police. “The RCMP are taking care of everything and I’ll be staying on one of the cruise ships, just not on the same one as other (officers) from Lethbridge. “I believe all six of us have different assignments but I’ll be stationed at Olympic Village.” The group is actually deployed on Feb. 4 and doesn’t return until March 3, making it a very long time to be away from home. Especially for those like Michelson, who have a family here. “I ran it by (my wife) before I applied,” laughs Michelson. “But we both thought it was a great idea. Of course, now (as the event draws near) she’s questioning it a little bit.” That might just be because the couple has four children and a month is a long time. It’s just the chance is too hard to pass up. “I just don’t think I’ll get this opportunity again in my career,” he says. “I highly doubt the Olympics will be in Canada again while I’m still working as a police officer so I look at this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “I also look forward to meeting police officers from around the country and to make some friends and establish some contacts for when we come back to work.” As excited as he is to go out there, Michelson is hoping for a rather uneventful experience. “Obviously we don’t want to go out there and have a major incident happen but having said that, we have to be very vigilant on things around us. You want to be investigating things and keeping your eyes open for the possibility something could happen. “But security is not the main focus of the Olympics, so hopefully it all goes smoothly and we’re never needed.” Const. Terry Vickers of the RCMP was also selected for the trip but is going to be involved in something a little more like regular duty. Traffic is a major concern in a city the size of Vancouver, with its limited access routes and Vickers is assigned to collision. “They sorted us around somewhat based on our qualifications and so people with specialized qualifications went to specialized areas and tasks,” says Vickers, admitting the scale has changed quite a bit in this case. “You go from Lethbridge traffic, where if you do a collision on a highway we just divert people around in a square on a township and range road, but there you might have an extra half million people coming through on a limited road system. “If there is a bad crash, we have to go investigate the collision but if the roads close for an hour, you can only imagine how backed up that’ll be so we’ll have to get in there and be fast because there are not a lot of routes you can divert to.” Vickers is also looking forward to boring work days but knows it’s a pipe dream at an event like this, even though cars can’t travel to events at all. When the world gathers for the Games in Vancouver, all eyes will be on the best athletes in the world. With the help of six locals, the Olympic security team aims to keep it that way. |
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