Thursday, June 24, 2010

Local police helping with security at Toronto summits

There’s a North Okanagan presence at the ongoing G8 and G20 summits in and near Toronto, featuring world leaders. A handful of Vernon-North Okanagan RCMP officers are on hand as part of the $1 billion security team assigned to the events. “We have a total of eight officers assigned to the summits,” said Vernon RCMP spokesman Gord Molendyk. Several of the officers are with the Kelowna-based Southeast District’s tactical team, which is trained in riot control and to do searches of areas for security purposes. A couple of officers are with an emergency response team, and a handful are there to cover static positions. The sending of local officers to Toronto is similar to when the detachment shipped out members to help with security at the Vancouver Olympics and Paralympics. “We’re still up to strength, we’re not running short,” said Molendyk.

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