150 More CPOs Trained for CWC 2007

An additional 150 Close Protection Officers (CPOs) were trained for the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007, to provide security for all 16 teams and several VIPs who will be in the island for the opening ceremony on March 11 at the Trelawny multi-purpose stadium.
“We have already worked out a programme of assignments of close protection officers for all teams taking part in the tournament, including those in the warm-up matches,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police, Owen Ellington, Chair of the Security Committee for the Jamaica Local Organising Committee (LOC).
He told JIS News that so far, everything was going well in regard to the deployment of CPOs for the teams from the Netherlands, Kenya, India and the West Indies.
“The Close Protection Officers are divided into two categories, one of which is travelling CPOs. These are officers who will travel with the teams. Then, there are assigned Close Protection Officers, who join with the travelling ones, once the team arrives in country,” he explained.
In terms of the amount of CPOs that will be assigned to teams throughout the Jamaican leg of the tournament, ACP Ellington said that the numbers “were worked out and agreed on between us [Security Committee] and the ICC Security Directorate”.
On the matter of training, ACP Ellington informed that CPOs in the Special Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force were heavily involved in the process. However, he pointed out that training was more intense for the tournament.
“A particular slant was made towards protecting athletes, because they present different challenges for protection than would be the case of Heads of State,” he said.
“We had to introduce into that training, a module specific to the needs of young athletes, who are high impact individuals and attract a lot of attention and can be bombarded by over enthusiastic fans,” he pointed out.