Grammar School To Become Security Hub During Games
The Age
Saturday May 21, 2005
MELBOURNE Girls Grammar in South Yarra will become the Victoria Police's security nerve centre for next year's Commonwealth Games.
The school in Anderson Street, opposite the Royal Botanic Gardens, was chosen because its three entrances make it hard to blockade, it has room to land two helicopters, there is a large parking area and it has room for up to 400 police to be briefed at once.Police sources have also told The Age that a further attraction was that classrooms and other buildings have state-of-the-art computer networking. That will allow police commanders at the school to connect with other police computers off-site, including its new intelligence database and operating system, codenamed Project Interpose. The school will also be the command centre for all other policing operations during the 12 days of the Games next March, including traffic control and criminal investigations. It is just minutes away from most major Games venues, including the MCG.The police will use most of the school buildings as its Games command centre. It will be manned 24 hours a day and a security cordon will be placed around the school and surrounding streets. Melbourne Girls Grammar principal Christine Briggs said there should be no major disruption tothe school's 950 students because the Games fell during school holidays."We will certainly be able to continue a number of the activities that we embark on in holiday time, such as maintenance and repairs," she said."It seemed like the appropriate, community-minded thing to do to say that we would be certainly happy to have them on board here."We're pleased to be able to assist and hope that it will prove to be as useful as they believe it will be."
© 2005 The Age