“The issue is the workforce,” mentioned Pierre Brajeux, president of the French Federation of Personal Safety. “Will we’ve got sufficient guards to correctly make sure the safety of the Video games? We have to hit the accelerator.”
The Olympics organizers, he mentioned, “have struggled to search out firms” by 4 rounds of contract bidding.
An particularly powerful promote: the job of managing the 104,000 ticketed spectators on the decrease banks of the Seine throughout the floating boat parade of the July 26 Opening Ceremonies. President Emmanuel Macron has mentioned that solely within the case of a transparent and imminent terrorist menace would the occasion be modified — contained within the Trocadero Sq. dealing with the Eiffel Tower or moved to the Stade de France, the nationwide stadium.
“We didn’t handle to persuade the businesses for the ceremony,” Paris 2024 safety chief Bruno le Ray informed Le Monde this previous week.
Some personal safety firms have been reluctant to bid as a result of they didn’t wish to be accountable for contracts they won’t have the ability to fulfill. Even earlier than the Olympics, the sector assessed that it was coping with a labor scarcity of 20,000 individuals. Though there was a concerted push to get extra individuals educated and authorized, together with by an accelerated three-week course funded by France’s unemployment company and the regional administration, it is probably not sufficient.
Sports activities Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra mentioned in a tv interview this previous week that the sector wanted 8,000 extra recruits to make sure full staffing for all of the Olympics occasions in Paris.
Above all, French officers wish to restrict the vulnerability of the Video games — to terrorism, crowd crushes and different safety threats. They’re additionally cautious of a humiliation like throughout the London 2012 Olympics, when a personal safety firm’s failure to ship on its contract meant that army troops needed to be known as in to test purses.
Some officers have shrugged off considerations, saying that greater than 20,000 persons are newly educated or within the pipeline. By July, they need to no less than be licensed to work at main occasions — doing bag checks and pat-downs, interacting with crowds, monitoring for suspicious habits and performing different primary safety work.
“There is no such thing as a failure. We’ve surpassed the objectives that we had set for ourselves,” Marc Guillaume, the chief administrator for the Île-de-France area, mentioned at a information convention on Thursday.
However personal safety specialists mentioned that whereas they respect the federal government’s efforts, officers could also be overestimating the variety of contractors accessible and underestimating what number of contractors will likely be wanted this summer time in reference to the Olympics — not simply at competitors websites however at airports, prepare stations and malls.
Brajeux mentioned the Olympics pose a “downside by way of geography and of timing.”
The Video games will happen in late July and August, when a couple of third of French safety contractors are historically on trip. And lots of the nation’s licensed contractors don’t dwell within the Paris area, the place the overwhelming majority of competitions will likely be held. They is probably not eager to spend weeks within the capital with out their households, working lengthy shifts within the oppressive Paris warmth.
The newly educated individuals will present a lift. However they received’t all be employed for the Olympics. Sometimes, solely about 60 % of those that undergo coaching go on to take personal safety jobs, based on business estimates. Furthermore, as a result of the coaching shouldn’t be Olympics-specific, individuals getting licensed this yr could also be recruited for the Video games — or for building websites or to exchange individuals leaving the sector.
Brajeux mentioned issues might nonetheless be rotated. A last recruitment push now goals to draw last-minute candidates, together with college students. “If there’s a massive wave of candidates,” he mentioned, “we’ve got the capability to coach them. We’ve sufficient coaching amenities.”
“Individuals suppose one must do karate to work in personal safety, however that’s not the case,” he mentioned.
Some candidates for Olympics roles have themselves generated safety considerations.
Officers have screened solely a small portion of the 1 million individuals they wish to assess earlier than the beginning of the Video games. However as of late March, based on Inside Minister Gérald Darmanin, 800 had been excluded from participation, together with 15 individuals who have been on nationwide safety watch lists.
“There are individuals who wished to register to hold the flame, be volunteers on the Olympics, and who clearly didn’t have good intentions,” Darmanin mentioned.
He famous that officers have been additionally screening everybody holding personal safety certification “out of precaution,” in case a few of them is likely to be requested to assist on the Olympics. The Inside Ministry flagged 1,392 of them, together with 102 who have been on watch lists.
By early April, the full variety of individuals excluded as a result of they have been on watch lists appeared to have risen from 117 to 161 individuals, based on Darmanin: 105 for radical Islam, 35 for the intense proper, 18 from the intense left and three for international interference. Virtually all have been French nationals.
Whereas these findings might certainly replicate the “risk of an infiltration” by militant teams reminiscent of Islamic State-Khorasan, the Afghanistan and Pakistan arm of the Islamic State, different dynamics can also be at play, cautioned Marc Hecker, a French terrorism researcher.
“The watch lists are fairly massive,” he mentioned. Some individuals might have ended up on them unintentionally. Others might have sooner or later been suspected or convicted of extremism-related crimes however are genuinely attempting to reintegrate into the job market.
Brajeux mentioned he was not involved in regards to the exclusion of the safety contractors. “Quite the opposite, it’s comforting,” he mentioned, noting that fewer than 1 % of guards have been flagged by the authorities. He added that though 280,000 individuals have been screened, “solely round 180,000 individuals actually work on this sector. Some have modified occupation, others died.”
Along with French personal safety, the police and the army, the Paris 2024 safety plan consists of assist from about 50 international nations who’re anticipated to ship a mixed 2,500 officers and an array of kit.
Darmanin mentioned they’ll deal with “securing their groups, lending us anti-drug, anti-bomb or anti-weapon canines, or being in contact with their compatriots.” He added that they might be armed.
Poland mentioned it could be sending troopers, together with canine handlers, centered on explosives detection and counterterrorism. In Rabat this previous week, he thanked Morocco for being amongst these to comply with ship regulation enforcement officers this summer time, whereas a safety committee from Qatar visited the gendarmerie headquarters in Paris to plan coordination.
Though French parliamentarians voiced criticism of Qatar’s human rights document when France despatched officers to assist safe the 2022 Soccer World Cup there, this yr’s preparations with Qatar, Morocco and different nations have prompted much less public scrutiny in France.
Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Undertaking, mentioned such agreements have been in place throughout main occasions up to now, and they’re more likely to be helpful in boosting French police forces’ “capability with people who communicate the language of collaborating groups.”
However coordinating safety for this high-risk Olympic Video games will stay a problem, even with worldwide assist.
“I actually wouldn’t wish to be the particular person chargeable for the Olympics in France this yr,” Schindler mentioned.
