Case Studies

Glasgow Games experience

by Mark Rowe

A case study from the XX Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in the summer of 2014. Featuring 17 sports over 11 days of competition, 261 medal events ran in 14 venues. Pictured are officers Debbie Maguire and Isla McGowan with Clyde, the Games mascot.

Corps Security was appointed in January 2014 to provide event security and related services for the Glasgow Green Precinct and nearby Holiday Inn. Jason Taylor, Corps Security’s event sales and marketing manager, says: “The Glasgow Green Precinct was the venue for the finish of the marathon as well as the cycling time trials and road races. Our key operational objectives were to maintain safety and security in the immediate environment, provide support to the venue management team throughout the deployment, and ensure that any live broadcasts were not disrupted. Meanwhile, at the Holiday Inn, we were tasked with maintaining a safe environment for members of the International Boxing Federation (IBF), who resided there.’

Corps reports it has experience in event management and crowd safety services, which have to abide by health and safety rules. Members of the company’s senior management team are taking crowd safety management degrees at Bucks New University.

Soon after being awarded the contract, Corps began preparing, with the appointment of a project group, comprising staff from across the company. Taylor says: ‘With the project team in place we then initiated a vigorous and robust recruitment process, with the thorough assessment and screening of 853 potential candidates, of which we appointed approximately 60. After being chosen for their particular skills and expertise, the selected individuals were given additional event specific training, with 23 courses completed across the UK by four trainers over a total of 1344 hours. Also during this time, we were asked if we could undertake additional security based tasks by Glasgow 2014, which we politely declined, as we felt there was not enough time to carry out a thorough recruitment and training process for any additional candidates.’

Deployment began on June 16 and at its peak 117 Corps Security licensed officers were in operation, carrying out a variety of roles including crowd safety, event CCTV monitoring, VIP and athlete protection and general event security. Taylor adds: ‘We needed to maintain an excellent standard of reliability and colleague engagement throughout. This was achieved through the implementation of a consistent management structure and allocation of duties, which was also helped by a fantastic attitude demonstrated by all members of the team. I’m particularly pleased to report that we achieved 100 per cent attendance throughout the period of deployment, which concluded on August 15. This is remarkable given that 2075 shifts were completed.’

Corps Security was one of 17 security and crowd safety service providers working at Glasgow 2014 – as the contractor points out, a lesson learnt from the problems of a shortfall of G4S guards, the sole security contractor at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Bert van Horck, Head of Event Services at G2014 says: ‘I was thoroughly impressed with the professionalism displayed and the way that officers carried out their tasks in an effective, efficient and polite manner at all times. The company is clearly a leader in its field and was able to deliver a quality service in the uniquely pressurised environment of a high profile global sporting event.’

Corps Security’s Commonwealth Games Event team has been nominated as the ‘Event Security Team of the Year’ in the Security & Fire Excellence Awards 2014. Visit www.corpssecurity.co.uk.

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