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HOMEGay Pride security insufficient, say police
By The Holland Times Wed. 1 August 2012
In the run up to the coming weekend's Gay Pride celebrations, the municipality of Amsterdam and the Amsterdam police have commented on the poor security of last year's event.
An evaluation by the police found that security measures agreed with in advance between event organiser Pro Gay and the police did not match up with the measures actually carried out. "All appointments made on paper, were not observed during the event," het Parool quotes the police and municipality as saying.
The discrepancies include less security guards on the parade route than originally decided upon, as well as the poor quality of security staff. It has also been pointed out that the municipality provided a grant of 130,000 euro to hire a private security agency for the event.
Despite this, the police have not entirely condemned the organisers. "It is always difficult with a large event like Gay Pride," a police spokesperson told het Parool. In addition, Pro Gay has let it be known that this year's event will be covered by a different security agency.
Councillor Frank de Wolf (PvdA) has expressed concern, however, and stated that he would like more clarification on the issue of the security grant.
