Protecting the Olympics
Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
Members of the Strathmore RCMP Detachment were on hand at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics to make sure things ran smoothly behind the scenes.
Six members of the Detachment and four members of the traffic department all responded to a Canada-wide call for the opportunity to work at the Olympics.
One member who went was Sgt. Kevin Reilly, who was assigned to do security at the alpine events at Whistler-Creekside.
“Something like the Olympics doesn’t come around all the time,” said Reilly. “If you can it’s something you always want to be involved with because you might never get that chance again.”
Reilly said the Olympics is a different situation than they are used to, and that many members were assigned to security situations or given designated tasks, jobs and duties.
Reilly said it was a lot of checking people’s accreditation, static security or checking people’s vehicles on the way to Whistler.
For those in the traffic sector, Reilly said they were involved in traffic control and the flow of people.
“Of course when you get large crowds you’ve got a lot of people that aren’t normally there and you have to deal with that,” said Reilly. “Plus the fact there was a lot of different traffic patterns for vehicles,” he added, referring to the designated Olympic lanes for vehicles containing athletes, coaches, trainers, medical staff etc.
RCMP members were in Vancouver between three and six weeks each and would work four days on, two days off.
He said there wasn’t much time to see events, and that he saw less of these Olympics than he has in the past 20 years.
“When you’re doing your job up there, you’re not watching the events,” said Reilly.
He said when walking through Whistler Village, especially during the second week of the games, you would see people walking around with medals and athletes in their team outfits.
“It’s very interesting in the sense that you don’t see that thing or be involved with it and you’ll never get that opportunity again,” said Reilly. “It’s a unique experience.”
In total, approximately 6,000 police officers from across Canada, worked the games, with 4,300 of them being RCMP members and 1,700 from 130 to 140 other police departments such as the OPP, Calgary Police Service and Vancouver Police Service.
Reilly said it was interesting to work alongside members from other detachments, and see how they operate and how they all ultimately come to the same conclusions.
It’s more the relationships you build, meeting new people and the outlook on different things.”
Cst. Susan Macintosh also went from the Strathmore RCMP detachment to work at the Olympic games.
“I can’t believe I got paid to be there,” she said. “It was awesome.”
Macintosh was also in Whistler, but worked as a scribe for the watch officer and took notes for him on what was happening.
“When things hit a certain level they don’t have time to take notes because they have to make split decisions and deploy people and resources,” said Macintosh.
She said the weather was amazing and on her days off she did get to take in some parts of Whistler including going rock climbing.
Macintosh also said it was good to see how other police forces work from across Canada.
“Not a lot of things happened in Whistler, which was good because it meant everyone was doing their job,” she said.
The others who went to Vancouver from Strathmore were Cst. Anne Daly, Cst. Mike Fulton, Cst. Leah Haye, Cst. Clearance Jackson and from the traffic department Cst. Mike Magee, Cpl. Tim Croft, Cst. Wendell Crosby and Cts. Martin Bouchard.