The Expo Fair is this weekend and a record number of businesses will be participating. Up until the carnival grenade incident, the Chamber of Commerce which is organizing was expecting great crowds. But with widespread public insecurity, today organizers met with Police and BDF personnel to ensure the visitors won’t become victims of urban terror.
Keith Swift Reporting,
The stage is being set for this weekend’s Expo Fair at the SJC Gym. Inside, the gym has been subdivided while outside booths have been set up. In some booths Marley is being rolled out and in others, curtains are being nailed down. A major part of those preparations is security. 17,000 people attended last year’s expo and the same and maybe even more are expected this year. And with that many people - in this era of urban terror era- for organizers security is now priority number one.
Omar Ortiz, Manager of Business Development - BCCI
“We really don’t think it is a target but at the end of the
day I think with what has transpired with the carnival scenario, I think people are definitely anxious and we have been bombarded at our offices as it relates to both the business community and the public calling and saying what are you guys doing about security.”
And what they’ll be doing is teaming up with the Police and BDF. This morning the Chamber’s Manager of Business Development Omar Ortiz and the Police’s Commander of Operations Crispin Jeffries along with the BDF’s Chief of Staff Major Ganney Dortch did a walk through of the Expo site – looking for strategic locations and possible weak spots. Jeffries and Dortch say there will be an unprecedented presence of security personnel, including a bomb squad on the ready.
Crispin Jeffries, Commander of Operations
“Annually we police the event and we police the event with a number of police officers that we consider adequate. In view of the recent incident we’ve stepped up our numbers and we’ve added to that an additional amount of armed soldiers and a demolition team. We’re looking at locations from where these people will be positioned to work. We’ve looked at the onsite perimeter security and the other ground security and we can say that we’re putting in place will certainly step up the security arrangement by at least 100%.”
Major Ganney Dortch, Chief of Staff – BDF
“The BDF’s role in this weekend’s event is we’re supporting the police in updating the security arrangements here at the Expo for Saturday and Sunday. We have looked at the security requirements and as a result of that there will be a justifiable amount of men to be placed here at the Expo grounds.”
But it doesn’t end there. There will be scanners and security cameras.
Omar Ortiz,
“Now when they enter the grounds, at the main point where everybody comes in on the road, after you’ve purchased your ticket and you’ve moved on, and unfortunately there is very limited parking within the SJC grounds, but at the main entrance before you get into the physical grounds itself, we will have a tent setup where we will probably have two or three security personnel scanning everybody to make sure it is safe. We really regret the inconvenience but I think at the same time people are calling for it, people are saying we don’t mind if we have to deal with a little more security checks, we rather be safe than sorry.”
As we mentioned at the top, there are a record number of businesses participating. There will be 131 booths and the Chamber says it had to actually turn down some businesses which wanted booths. 90 security personnel will be on hand and that includes police officers, BDF soldiers, and private security guards. There will also be increased police presence in the immediate area surrounding the campus.
