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SCOTLAND SEND SUPPORT FROM NORTH


PC Sahera Cumming was part of a 22 strong Tayside community policing contingent deployed to the Olympics for 19 days. The group worked across the Olympic Park, The Copperbox and the O2 Arena. Sahera has since been praised by bosses at Tayside Police and the Met for her “permanent smile” and for being able to “adapt her policing style to suit any situation”. Here she shares a snapshot of her Olympic experience. “I had the pleasure of being one of the


officers selected to work in London during the Olympic Games. We stayed at Hatfield Student Halls in single en suite rooms, the facilities were fantastic with a 24-hour canteen and bar. On our first working day we patrolled the


Sahera (front row, third from right) and the rest of the Tayside contingent


Olympic Park to familiarise ourselves. It felt unreal to be working where thousands of people would be paying to visit and others could only dream of being. During my shifts we supervised a visit from the Queen and her


family, met various handball teams whilst in The Copperbox, (my colleagues supported the female Swedish team) and watched the Olympic contenders train within the Velodrome.


There were blisters along the way due to the long hours and


there was very little down time. For me it would have been nice to have more females on the deployment to occasionally dampen the male bravado. But morale remained high and spirits were always lifted by the positive reaction from the public; in fact I would say Tayside officers were very well thought of by the public, volunteers and police alike, it was a real pleasure to be selected.”9


Security water tight at sailing village


The Olympic and Paralympic safety and security operation was been the biggest operation in Dorset Police history. Officers, staff and special constables all pitched in to help taking on new and different roles. Superintendent Jane Newall acted as a bronze commander for the


secure site at the Olympic Sailing Village and Sailing Academy. Her base was next to the athlete’s village and house


representatives from all blue-light services, the military, the Olympic organising committee and G4S. Working together in one location all summer allowed a great sense of teamwork to develop said Jane. “We all learned a huge amount about each other’s organisations and this helped us to solve the inevitable problems we encountered along the way.”


But despite the 12 hour days or nights Jane says there were some perks to working from secure bronze control room. “I had the benefit of excellent technology that allowed us to view the sailing events.” The role police staff played in the Olympics was also critical to the


GRAPEVINE Autumn 2012


Katie Ford carried out a similar role to PC Jenny Bousfield pictured here studying CCTV pictures


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