Rio’s “shock” police force work to calm security fears during Olympics

Olympics

CCTV America got a behind-the-scenes look of the work of Rio’s “Shock” police force. In the face of concerns about the safety of Rio, authorities went out of their way to allay the fears of visitors.

CCTV America’s Stephen Gibbs reports.

Never have so many police and army forces been so visible on the streets of Rio. There are 85,000 of them in total- twice as many as patrolled the London Olympics.

These numbers won’t be maintained after the games, but the police said some valuable lessons have been learned. The Brazilian security forces are sometimes criticized for not coordinating properly. This Olympics has been a real-time test of that.

The exercise we were invited to film involved two forces-the federal police and the Rio shock troops, working together.

Part of this training does appear to be preparing for protests – some are planned for the closing weekend of the games.

They will be hoping that any drop in crime during the Olympics will be maintained, once the visitors have gone.