Beijing Olympic Torch Relay
Media Conference, Legislative Assembly
ACT Chief Police Officer Mike Phelan
21 April 2008 (1015hrs)
(NOTE: Only those excerpts relevant to statements made by the ACT Chief Police Officer follow.)
Reporter: Are the police officers being brought exclusively from the AFP, ACT Policing? Where else are they coming from?
Jon Stanhope: Perhaps Chief Police Officer Phelan can respond?
CPO Phelan: Okay, in answer to that question, all the police to be used will be AFP Police, so either from ACT Policing here in Canberra or we've also utilised some of our wider resources of the AFP from interstate.
Reporter: What proportion of the ACT Policing force will be requisitioned for this day, for the torch relay?
CPO Phelan: I've said, a fair percentage of our people will be used, at least half, about half, we've still got to maintain normal patrols around the ACT, so that'll happen and we'll also manipulate our rosters to acquire the people.
Reporter: There've been reports that the flame attendants, why of course, the flame attendants are crack paramilitary police, when they're not guarding flames they've been trained as crack paramilitary police units. What does the ACT government or the federal police or the ACT Police know about these guys' backgrounds?
CPO Phelan: The actual background of the individuals is pretty much irrelevant, it's what their role is here in Australia. Their role is just to attend the flame. So they'll have a role of running with the flame and looking after it, that's about all in terms of the technical aspects of the flame. I don't know how many times we have to actually repeat it: they will perform no security role in relation to the flame at all. The security role will be performed by the AFP, and only the AFP.
Reporter: Given that one of them though, will be standing next to the flame at all times, given what we think we know about their backgrounds, how much confidence do you have that they will do nothing if there was an incident, somebody charged the flame, [and it] happens in a split second. Do you have absolute confidence they'll do nothing, step back as they're required to do?
CPO Phelan: I am quite confident that the ACT Policing around the flame will secure the flame and provide the security and there is no need for anybody else and they will not provide any other security around the flame nor the runner; that role purely rests with ACT Policing and that job will be done by us.
Reporter: There've been reports previously that the attendants have been, their behaviour has been quite thuggish. Are you confident that they will be well-behaved or under control as you've reiterated the AFP has full security?
CPO Phelan: That's right. I think I'm on the record at the first press conference with you a couple of weeks ago. I saw what happened in London and I said that won't happen here, and that is the case, that's still the case. What you've seen overseas won't happen here.
Reporter: On the subject of protestors, how likely is it we'll see violent clashes between Tibetan and Chinese groups, or other groups on the day?
CPO Phelan: Well, we would obviously like to see no conflict between them at all but ACT Policing is preparing for all sorts of contingencies that may occur and in answer to another question, we've been liaising very heavily with members of both the anti-Chinese protestors and also pro-Chinese and they've all been very helpful so far in terms of helping us with organisation. So we're quite confident that the groups that are here to protest generally, which is their right, but at the end of the day we don't want to spoil it by actually disrupting the flame itself.
Reporter: Do you expect to trust them?
CPO Phelan: I think there has to be some sort of expectation, it would be remiss of us if we didn't expect there was going to be some sort of activity, but most of the time this is done as opportunistic. We've always got a couple of ratbags that want to jump on as individuals, do something stupid, and we've got a lot of contingency plans in place to deal with those types of situations.
Reporter: What's your latest estimate of crowd numbers?
CPO Phelan: The crowd numbers so far are something that we are keeping to ourselves, but I can confidently tell you that whatever amount of people come here there will be sufficient number of police to be able to deal with the issues that may occur.
Reporter: Some of the protest numbers that have been bandied around: 3000, 5000, 10,000 Chinese students; can you comment on that?
CPO Phelan: I have no comment on particular numbers of people that are going to come to protest. The only comment I will make is that obviously people have a legitimate right to protest and that's fine but we also encourage other Canberrans to come along. This is a great day, there's going to be a vast majority of good times happening here, and people should take advantage of that.
Reporter: One final question from me: why can't the role, the flame attendant role, be performed by locals, by equivalent locals?
CPO Phelan: The flame attendants that are there, they have a legitimate role, this is a mechanical device, there are technical details with it, we do not want to have to do that role as well. Our job is about security, and we will look after the security. The actual mechanics around the flame is something that they can do, and legitimately, people must remember that this is BOCOG's torch; you know, it's a Chinese torch and they have a legitimate role to play in keeping the torch alight, but non-security based.
Reporter: While this event is going on, what happens with policing for the rest of the ACT?
CPO Phelan: The rest of the ACT will be business as usual, so there'll be normal patrols covering north and south and normal community interaction will occur, so there'll be no changes to that at all.
Reporter: And you know how you said there's some time, timetabling scheduling changes?
CPO Phelan: Rostering changes?
Reporter: Yes. Is that going to flow through the week, are you going to have a whole heap of people who have to have days off?
Mike Phelan: No, no, it'll be just for the day, no we'll be right. So it's business as usual for the rest of Canberra even for the following weeks.
Ends//