Organising an event as the 2014 Vodafone Rally de Portugal requires a series of tasks, many of them unknown to the general public, but of paramount importance for everything to go as smoothly as possible during the Rally.
Among those, the liaison with the Guarda Nacional Republicana, the law enforcement body responsible for the area in which the Rally is held: liaisons, stages, spectators areas and the Algarve Stadium. For this, the Faro and Beja departments have 1,000 men on duty.
This process started in mid February, during a meeting in the Algarve Stadium with the commanders of the operation, as well as the GNR officials and sergeants in charge of the several Rally stages. The Race Direction presented the 2014 edition, set the safety plan guiding lines and gave each responsible the security plan draft of each stage.
This was then analyzed by each GNR responsible during the following month. More recently, the Race Direction made an inspection visit to each stage accompanied by the GNR officer in charge to validate the draft plan and/or to introduce corrections suggested by GNR according to the law enforcement agents’ knowledge of the area and their experience from previous editions. Such changes are then introduced of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal Safety Plan.
Striving to ensure a good interaction between civilian and military elements working on site, the Race Directions has also developed training actions with the Marshals teams coordinators – a group of more than 400 volunteers responsible for the fans on the Spectators Areas.
Obviously, the fact the event is held on the South of the country for several years has made the task easier, but this interaction between the Guarda Nacional Republicana and groups of civilian volunteers is one of the keys for the success of the event when it comes to safety.
Organising an event as the 2014 Vodafone Rally de Portugal requires a series of tasks, many of them unknown to the general public, but of paramount importance for everything to go as smoothly as possible during the Rally.
Among those, the liaison with the Guarda Nacional Republicana, the law enforcement body responsible for the area in which the Rally is held: liaisons, stages, spectators areas and the Algarve Stadium. For this, the Faro and Beja departments have 1,000 men on duty.
This process started in mid February, during a meeting in the Algarve Stadium with the commanders of the operation, as well as the GNR officials and sergeants in charge of the several Rally stages. The Race Direction presented the 2014 edition, set the safety plan guiding lines and gave each responsible the security plan draft of each stage.This was then analyzed by each GNR responsible during the following month. More recently, the Race Direction made an inspection visit to each stage accompanied by the GNR officer in charge to validate the draft plan and/or to introduce corrections suggested by GNR according to the law enforcement agents’ knowledge of the area and their experience from previous editions. Such changes are then introduced of the Vodafone Rally de Portugal Safety Plan.
Striving to ensure a good interaction between civilian and military elements working on site, the Race Directions has also developed training actions with the Marshals teams coordinators – a group of more than 400 volunteers responsible for the fans on the Spectators Areas.
Obviously, the fact the event is held on the South of the country for several years has made the task easier, but this interaction between the Guarda Nacional Republicana and groups of civilian volunteers is one of the keys for the success of the event when it comes to safety.