Beijing Olympic Games 2008

With the Beijing Olympic Games only 200 days away, police in the capital city are maintaining high alert and preparing for a safe Olympics.

Emergency response comes to normal status
On January 1, 2008, a team of civil police officers employed eight police dogs to seek inflammable and explosive hazardous articles at a section of the subway in Beijing as part of a new antiterrorist and antiriot move in the Olympic year.
On the scene of a police drive recently, 12 international security experts applauded when they saw the Beijing special police force rescue a hostage in just seven minutes. The policemen also demonstrated their skills in driving, fighting without using arms, cleaning the scene of an explosion, and controlling the turbulence of sports fans …
“Since 2004, we have taken the enhancement of anti terrorist and anti riot capacity as our first priority, by training special personnel and conducting citywide antiterrorist drives to bring the task of anti-terrorism and emergency response to the normal track,” said Ma Zhenchuan, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security and commander of Olympic Security.
“We noticed that the Beijing police have made due plans and preparations, taking efficient measures to guard against any emergencies,” said an official of the U.N. Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute.
As early as 2005, Beijing set up the main detachment of the special police to take precautions against terrorist attacks and explosions that were rampant in some areas of the world. Beijing’s subway lines have been among the key public places to receive special attention.
The new detachment, equipped with different types of guns, wolf-eye flashlights and a series of special vehicles, has met the demands of rapid-response, swift treatment, and mobile combat and has enhanced the capital city’s antiterrorist and emergency-response capacities and levels. Its members have undergone special training and accumulated experience in dealing with kidnapping, hostage-taking, explosions and other terrorist incidents.
“Although Beijing has not seen any terrorist incident so far, it has an anti-terrorist force of high combat effectiveness which can deal with any emergencies,” said Liu Shaowu, director of BOCOG’s Security Department.
Indeed, the rapid response capability of the Beijing police has increased. The 110 police can emerge on the spot in an average of 4.5 minutes upon receiving an incident report. The rate of arrest in five minutes has reached 58 percent in case of feasible conditions.
An antiterrorist squad comprising 33 members from 16 key departments is monitoring the city’s water, power, and gas stations and is ready to respond to any emergency as fast as possible.
Currently, the Olympic security system has passed test runs. During the Olympic Games, security forces will be assigned to different posts according to the needs. Beijing police have made 52 general plans, which will be updated and supplemented along with the situations in China and elsewhere. To make the plans more thorough and well-knit, over 70 Chinese and foreign experts have been appointed.

from: beijing2008.cn