Police prefect Laurent Nuñez assured Friday that there will be “no substitution” of private security, whose recruitment has still not been completed, by the army or the police during the Olympic Games . “There is no substitution planned by the armed forces or the internal security forces,” declared Laurent Nuñez during a press conference, ruling out any “failure” of private security.
The police prefect nevertheless indicated that during the opening ceremony on the Seine, for which “the Minister of the Interior wanted the highest standard of security”, the police and the gendarmerie would carry out “a certain number of missions which, on other sites, can be provided by private security.”
At this stage, 93% of the needs of private security companies have been covered, indicated the regional prefect Marc Guillaume during this conference, putting the “residual needs” at 1,880 people. The organizers of the Games are still looking for 400 agents for the evening of the opening ceremony on July 26, said the director of security for the Olympic Games, Bruno Le Ray, on Wednesday.
The issue of private security has been a concern for months for the Olympic organizing committee, which has estimated the necessary number of security agents at between 18,000 and 22,000 at the height of the world sporting event. The Minister of Defense, Sébastien Lecornu, assured at the end of March that 18,000 soldiers would be mobilized if there were a shortage of security agents.
