Thousands of police confirmed for Brisbane Olympics

Queenslanders should not expect the same level of security at the Olympics that was used for the state’s G20 conference as police numbers are revealed.

Up to 3000 police will be deployed for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Up to 3000 police will be deployed for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games as thousands of athletes and tourists converge on the southeast, the police boss overseeing the security operation says.

Queensland Police Service Deputy Commissioner Shane Chelepy said an Olympic planning unit was already engaged and was providing security advice around stadiums in Queensland.

He said police were also speaking with the transport sector relating to the movement of people in and out of populated city areas.

“I was in Paris earlier this year, I was over there looking at the way that they were able to disperse people through their city,” Mr Chelepy said.

“Because it’s not just the venue from our perspective that becomes a risk, it’s crowded places where ... people can’t disperse when they come out of the venue.

“A really big lesson out of Paris is the way that Paris was able to empty their stadiums but disperse them through the rail network, the bus network ... to break those crowds out really quickly.”

Mr Chelepy said Queenslanders should not expect the same level of security that was used for the state’s G20 conference of world leaders in 2014 which included President Barack Obama.

That event had the tightest security arrangements in Queensland’s history, with rolling lockdowns around streets, barricaded areas and with snipers across multiple locations on rooftops.

He said the Olympics would be closer to how the Commonwealth Games on the coast was policed, being a sporting event with a security overlay.

“So with G20 we had kilometres and kilometres of heavy fencing, blockades, lockdowns, area shutdowns,” Mr Chelepy said.

“Whereas with our sporting event overlay that we saw for the Commonwealth Games, yes, there will be restricted areas, but what you’ll see is a far more sporting approach to it of making sure that people can come into sporting events but can come there safely.”

Mr Chelepy said partner agencies including other law enforcement in Australia and New Zealand and the army would be involved.

“We’ll definitely be drawing on ADF support,” he said. “We will see probably somewhere between 2000-3000 police deployed to the Olympics.”

But he said the contingent would be small compared to the reported 35,000 personnel for the Paris Olympics. He said they use private security to man screening points, with police handling security overlay, and a third level security overlay after that.

“We want people to come and enjoy the Olympics and have a vibe, but it also means we want them to go into the city and go to our pubs, our clubs ... so you create those unintended crowded places, which we also have to police.”