| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Volunteer police say they're left out in the cold
By Derek Jensen
Deseret News staff writer
Chicago police officer Edwin Pacheco sacrificed his entire vacation time and paid his own way to Utah so he could join the more than 600 out-of-state police providing security for the 2002 Winter Games.
Once excited for the opportunity to experience the Olympics up close, Pacheco and other volunteer officers now say their Olympic fire is fading after sleeping night after night in cold, drafty recreational vehicles and eating the same food every day.
One officer told the Deseret News he's had to wrap up in five blankets at night to keep warm.
"Nobody's happy and everybody's complaining," said one volunteer officer staying in an RV on the Wasatch Back who asked to remain anonymous.
Police volunteers at one temporary trailer town in Heber City considered walking out on their Olympic assignments after they arrived and found no running water, backed up sewers and below freezing temperatures.
"We considered it last week when things started getting really bad because we just feel so under-appreciated," Pacheco said.
But officials from the Utah Olympic Public Safety Command say they're hearing just the opposite.
So far, only five out-of-state volunteers have quit, UOPSC commander Robert Flowers said Friday. That drop-off is a remarkable decrease compared with Atlanta, where, by this time in the Games, between 35 percent and 40 percent of the volunteer officers had already left. Flowers said he's spoken personally with a few dozen volunteers and insists only a "small, small number" are complaining.
"I absolutely know and understand and agree with what they're saying, but given the money we had to spend and the resources that were made available to us, we did the very best with what we had," Flowers said. "Their comfort has been our top priority since they got here."
Flowers acknowledged that there have been problems with sewers backing up, pipes freezing, hot water running out and trailers not staying warm at some of the RV villages housing volunteer officers. Security planners have tried to fix some of the problems, Flowers said. They've sent shuttles to help carry volunteers into Park City and fixed the plumbing problems. Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety Verdi White personally delivered a carload of space heaters and insulation to a housing site near Soldier Hollow.
For the officers staying along the Wasatch Back, the RVs were the only affordable option for housing volunteers when compared with the $300 and $400 hotel rooms in the area, Flowers said. Many officers are also being housed in warmer dormitories at Weber State University and Westminster College.
"I would give them all tickets to closing ceremonies and take them in limos if I could, but we just don't have the resources to do that," Flowers said.
The unhappy volunteers told the Deseret News they weren't expecting five-star accommodations — but having a warm place to stay and better food to eat would make things easier for them to endure their 10-hour shifts out in the cold.
One volunteer who worked in Atlanta, for example, said officers there were able to eat at all-you-can-eat cafeterias and given free water to keep cool. Nightly entertainment also helped officers pass their free time.
The officers here are given hot dogs during their work breaks and free coffee or hot chocolate.
Nightly entertainment has only happened once or twice, officers said.
"For guys that aren't getting paid and coming out here it's not right to get treated like this," said one officer who worked the 1996 Atlanta Games. "You've got to take care of the people that are providing security. When the cops are doing this for free, you've got to keep them interested to keep them coming back."
The officer said he'd rate his volunteer experience in Atlanta a nine on a scale of one to 10.
"Salt Lake I'd give it a nine if it wasn't for the accommodations," he said. "The accommodations lower it to about a six or five."
E-mail: djensen@desnews.com
|
|
February 16, 2002
|
