RWC Joint Intelligence Group - critical role
When hosting an international sporting event, criminal acts can range from acts of terrorism, tourists falling victim to targeted crimes, ticket scamming and theft. The RWC Joint Intelligence Group played a crucial role in providing information, research and recommendations to support the District Commanders and the RWC Operational Commander in making the key decisions that delivered a safe and successful policing operation for the World Cup.
Ticket scamming - a major issue
Police News spoke to the Director of Intelligence Mark Evans from the Rugby World Cup Joint Intelligence Group. Mr Evans and the team began planning for the tournament in early 2009, firstly by looking closely at major international sporting events that had taken place over the past ten years.
Mr Evans described ticket scamming as one of the key crimes that had become common over the past decade at events. “We spent time talking to the Metropolitan Police in London regarding the intelligence planning for the 2012 Olympics. Ticket scamming had already become an issue for the Metropolitan Police. The information and advice they could share with us was crucial to putting processes in place to try and prevent people being scammed while they were here,” said Mr Evans.
Keeping Police and government informed
A key role of the Intelligence Group was to ensure government departments were kept aware of any potential criminal and security issues, throughout the tournament. During the tournament and particularly on game days, government and Operational Commanders were given daily reports about issues, such as potential protests and people of concern. This assisted decision-making around the distribution of Police resources.
International Police take away ideas for 2012 Olympics
The Commander of the Metropolitan Police visited New Zealand to speak to the RWC Joint Intelligence Group about the technology, planning and processes in place for the tournament that could be applied to the 2012 Olympic Games in London. “Our technology solutions have been of interest to the Metropolitan Police with the Commander taking away quite a few ideas,” Mr Evans told Police News.
A safe and secure tournament
When asked if he felt the intense planning and research had paid off, Mr Evans said, “From an intelligence perspective, the original planning has ensured that we had enough Police resource distributed throughout the country and that incidents were kept within a reasonable range. The proof at the end of the day is that we had a very safe and secure tournament”.
