Security at the Sydney 2000 Olympic and
Paralympic Games will appear unobtrusive despite the use of the world's most up-to-date
surveillance and crowd management procedures. Policing of the Games will be undertaken on
a modern risk management system based on worldwide intelligence services and local
expertise obtained by the Olympic Intelligence Centre. Travellers arriving at Sydney
Airport to attend the Games may not even notice the increased security levels. The image
of machine-gun bearing guards on every corner is not the Australian way. Security at
the athletes Olympic village will be at a very high level. Every person entering the
village will be screened and all bags searched on all occasions. The Olympic Stadium will
be security screened before the opening and closing ceremonies and security will be in
place before and during all events.
Nobody will be permitted to any Olympic venue without a valid ticket.
NSW Police Commissioner Peter Ryan, who has overall responsibility for all Olympic and
Paralympic security, established the Olympic Security Command Centre (OSCC) to carry out
this task and appointed Commander Paul McKinnon as its head. Commander McKinnon said
safety at the Games would be provided through meticulous planning, sound intelligence
gathering and an extraordinary network of cooperative arrangements between law enforcement
and the community at large.
SOCOG will administer commercial security roles such as access control at Olympic
precinct and venue perimeters supervised by NSW Police. This arrangement represents a dual
security model agreed between SOCOG and NSW Police. The model aligns commercial security
roles with regular policing in Olympic operations under a single command — the
Police. The OSCC also provides security services for the Olympic Torch Relay and the
Olympic Football Tournament through collaboration between the NSW Police Service, the
Australian Defence Force and the Police Services of all other Australian States.
