‘Working during the NATO Summit was intense, but worthwhile’

The biggest security operation ever organized in the Netherlands – that’s how people describe the NATO Summit in The Hague on 24-25 June. Lecturers and students of the Netherlands Police Academy, as well as supervisors, all made valuable contributions to ensuring that the Summit ran smoothly.

Escorting heads of government, ministers, and their partners – that was the task that fell to Hans Egas during NATO Summit. Hans is an instructor on the Police Academy’s specialized driving courses. And he and his colleague Paul de Groot are jointly responsible for the Motorcycle Escort Course. During the Summit the two, together with eight fellow motorcycle officers, crisscrossed The Hague, Rotterdam, and the whole of the Netherlands. ‘It was intense. But I had a fantastic week.’

‘It took us months to prepare everyone for escorting all the VIPs during the NATO Summit. I was the commander for a team of five motorcyclists. As a team, you ride at the head of a motorcade of between six and eight cars. My colleague Paul got to escort President Trump’s motorcade. I escorted delegations from several countries, such as Iceland, Albania, and Canada.

We were all assigned to a certain colour, corresponding to the security classification given to each motorcade. America was red, for instance. I mainly escorted green and orange motorcades.’

‘With the motorcycle support team from National Intelligence, Expertise, and Operational Support, I had the honour of escorting Queen Maxima. She took part in the partners’ programme in Rotterdam – on 25 June there was an outing there for the partners of the delegation members. The programme included a welcome by the mayor of Rotterdam, Carola Schouten.’

‘We worked out a whole schedule in advance. But not everyone went to the same meetings. While the heads of state and government attended the state banquet, the ministers had a meeting in the World Forum. So this called for quite a bit of improvisation on our part. Driving VIPs is a great experience. One of the other people I escorted was Giuseppe Dragone, Chair of the NATO Military Committee. He shook hands and thanked me. I was pleased, as not everyone does that.’

‘We in Operational Supervision and Training really did a great job’

Marcel Zuurmond is one of the supervisors with Operational Supervision and Training (OBT) in the The Hague Regional Unit. During the NATO Summit, he and his colleagues were responsible for supervising students: both those students who were deployed during the Summit and those who continued their ‘lessons as usual’. A major operation! ‘We in OBT really did a great job.’

‘I always find it really important to connect with the students in my own police district. That’s what I’m there for. But I also feel responsible for all the other students in our Unit. And certainly for all of them who came to The Hague from out of town, especially for the Summit. It almost felt like we were hosting them. The students who came from far away stayed in hotels. We were their point of contact in The Hague, and were in close communication with their supervisors.’

‘Our students in Q1 to Q3 continued their lessons ‘as usual’. Not at our De Yp campus, but at our learning and development campus in Alphen aan den Rijn. Our Q4 students were deployed at the surveillance centre, monitoring live video footage. Our Q5 students could be deployed, under supervision, at the offices of the Service and Intake teams. Because of the Summit, those teams could really use the extra capacity the students provided.’

‘The Q6 students had a special task in security along the route of the N44 motorway. We did stipulate a maximum of three students per group of eight police officers: so three students and five experienced officers. We did that to ensure the students’ safety.

Any students in Q7 and Q8 who weren’t deployed for the Summit also continued with their studies. In practice, what that meant was that they were part of the emergency assistance teams that attended incidents. Ultimately, all of our students were deployed according to the stage they are at in their degree programme.’

‘You have to be incredibly focused’

Stefan is one of the students who was deployed for monitoring video footage. What was he looking out for? ‘I was deployed at the surveillance centre in The Hague. The whole area where the Summit was held was full of CCTV cameras. We then monitored the footage from these cameras live, 24/7, on about 30 monitors.

My shifts were from 6 am to 2:30 pm. You view footage on the screen for 30 minutes at a time, followed by a 30-minute break. You really need that break, because you have to be incredibly focused when you’re monitoring footage.’

‘Our job was to pick up on suspicious behaviour. So things like a car standing still for a long time, or someone filming. If we saw anything, we immediately reported it to the supervisor. They then assessed what we had seen. If necessary, we notified the control room, and they then sent officers to assess the situation on the ground. The person was checked and sent on their way, for instance.’

‘For me, the shifts didn’t just start on Tuesday, but already on Sunday. Over the days, I was looking at different places: the first day I was watching a hotel and the public roadways around The Hague Central Station. The third day was the most interesting, because then I had a view of the press entrance to the building where the Summit was being held.’

‘I did see some suspicious situations there. Like a postal delivery person who hung around in the same place for half an hour. Normally postal delivery people leave pretty quickly after delivering a parcel, for instance. This one was wearing a hood and a cap and was standing with her face towards the entrance to the building. Just as I was reporting it, some police officers on the ground went over and talked to her.’

‘In addition, one of my colleagues saw a woman in dark clothing, wearing sunglasses, wandering around a bit aimlessly. Then she got out her phone and started filming in a rather sneaky way. We reported that situation too. I helped then too whenever she turned up on my screen. But luckily the days passed off pretty peacefully.’

‘You see quite a lot on a CCTV camera like that. It’s good I have now experienced the whole process: from seeing something on the screen, to scaling up, assessing, reporting to the control room, and then police officers being deployed on the ground. Pretty soon of course I’ll be that officer on the ground. So it’s good to know how the officers in CCTV monitoring work and how they pick things up.’

‘On the fourth day I also saw the delegations from the various countries driving through my sights. That was pretty cool. And the other thing you could see on the CCTV cameras was just how many police officers and other partners were involved: from the armed forces, Royal and Diplomatic Protection, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, Special Interventions, and even the Fire Brigade. I was pleased to actually be part of such a major security operation.’

Students were able to contribute to the operation as a whole

Marcel, supervisor: ‘I think we in the OBT made good use of the students’ skills, according to the stage they’re at in their degree programme. They were certainly able to contribute to the operation as a whole – meaning, apart from anything else, that police officers with the necessary powers could be deployed elsewhere where they were needed. So in terms of capacity and work hours, the students played an important part. And as far as their police training is concerned, this is really good experience for them.’

Photographs: 112 photography Rotterdam Rijnmond