Background

The Athens Olympic Committee (ATHOC) recognised the need to provide specialist training to several thousand local Greek police to support the security efforts of the 2004 Olympics

In July 2002 ArmorGroup International Training was selected by ATHOC to provide a number of specialised training teams for deployment to Greece.

ArmorGroup actions

From August 2002 to December 2003 ArmorGroup International Training deployed to Athens a large training team which conducted continuous training for the whole period.

The aim of the training was to to train and prepare the Greek national police in the specialist skills needed to help them defend against any possible terrorist threat directed at Olympic athletes, venues or guests during the 2004 Olympics.

ArmorGroup’s courses, which combined theory with relevant practical experience, were taught by operationally experienced and professionally qualified instructors and covered the following areas:

• Surveillance detection.
• Protective security operations.
• Driver & accident awareness.
• Defensive driver training.
• Incident reaction skills.
• Vehicle recovery.
• Tactical use of firearms.
• “Train the Trainer” for all the above.

Results

Over the seventeen months that the ArmorGroup International Training team was stationed at its facility in Greece they trained several thousand police personnel in the required skills.

The result was that these trained personnel became part of an integrated security effort which ultimately led to an incident-free Olympics.