we met the Chief of Staff Thierry Ducret, in charge of police logistics during the Games

The former commanding general of the Land Special Forces, Thierry Ducret, was chosen in January by the Paris Police Prefecture to lead the mission of managing all logistical issues related to police action during the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Franceinfo met him.

The Paris police headquarters created an Olympic logistics headquarters in January. Objective: anticipate, plan and manage all logistical issues relating to the mobilization of police officers in Île-de-France to secure the Games. At the head of this General Staff, a leader specially appointed for this mission: Thierry Ducret, a career soldier. Franceinfo was able to open the door to this headquarters located in the heart of Paris, in premises lent for the occasion by the General Directorate of Public Finances.

franceinfo: Thierry Ducret, who are you and what is your mission?

Thierry Ducret: I am responsible for police logistics for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and ensuring support for the police forces who will be deployed in the Île-de-France region during this major event. Before, I was “security” director of an international company and I mainly had a career as an officer for 40 years. For many years I worked in French, American and British staffs. My mission started in January. It should end towards the end of the year because obviously, once the Olympic Games are over, we will have to do after-sales service, that is to say, as usual on this type of important meeting and management at the national level, reporting to the National Assembly, the Senate, the Court of Auditors.

You are the head of a team of several people, how do you work?

Today, we have around twenty people and we should increase to 50 people at the most critical moment, that is to say when we start running the Games. You have people who come from the police headquarters, so police officers, administrative staff from the police headquarters, you therefore have people who, like me, were recruited for the occasion, but also reservists from the gendarmerie and of the army. To these will be added teams who will be on the ground and who will report directly to the logistics headquarters, i.e. around 500 people who will be distributed across all logistics sites.

We are responsible in particular for coordinating all the logistics for police reinforcements coming from the provinces, but not only that. When we talk about logistics, we obviously talk about accommodation. It is managed by the general management of the national police, but we look concretely, precisely where we are going to put such personnel according to the mission they are going to have.

“There is also power supply, managing the sick, the injured, ensuring that the radios will work, that the batteries are recharged and that the vehicles will be in good condition.”

Thierry Ducret, Chief of Logistics Staff for the Olympic Games

at franceinfo

The police headquarters is obviously continuing this mission, but taking into account the stakes, the volume and the duration over which it will happen, since in fact it will last approximately three months between June 15 and September 15 , it’s long, there are a lot of people, so it was considered useful to have an organization that coordinates all of that.

Are there any areas of concern?

What occupies us most at the moment is the identification of sites that we call “rest zones”, these are sites where the police can come and take their break. Around forty are needed in Ile-de-France near the Olympic sites. We must therefore find sites which are not used by the organizing committee of the Olympic Games, nor by the Paris town hall. We found sites, but now we are trying to improve them because some are quite rustic or basic. Obviously it’s a big logistical operation. The armies are used to managing huge numbers of troops who go abroad, the police headquarters is less so, which is why this headquarters was created. But I see that it’s all organized quite well.

“We have more than 100,000 meals to distribute and eight million bottles of water over the entire games period.”

Thierry Ducret, Chief of Logistics Staff for the Olympic Games

at franceinfo

There are also dogs who arrive as reinforcements, around 60% come from abroad, 40% from the provinces. Most go up with their kibble because you don’t change a dog’s diet the day before for the next day. But there are a number of countries that have asked us to provide kibble. So we also take care of dog food and hay for the horses as well, since we have 20 horses arriving from Spain and Portugal. Dog reinforcements arrive towards the end of July. The dog comes with the handler, often also with a vehicle. We obviously ensure that these people are welcomed, accommodated and fed.

One month before the Games, can we say that everything is ready?

Until now we have worked on planning, on implementing the systems that we were going to need and now we are working on adapting these systems if we ever have to change things. So, there’s a little less than a month left to do that, which seems enough to me. We obviously have to be ready to modify the arrangements we have considered because current events may lead to disengaging units that were planned for Paris or, on the contrary, reinforcing them. This is all obviously very moving. Given the commitment of the national gendarmerie and various internal security forces in New Caledonia, we are, for example, in the process of readjusting the system and seeing how many forces will ultimately be available to the police headquarters.

Adaptation is what worries me the least. Because it is still a large force of the national police, the police headquarters and the Ministry of the Interior. Throughout history and always, police officers have been able to readjust extremely quickly to a situation that was completely unforeseen. So, quite honestly, that’s really what worries me the least. And then, once we have planned things well, once we have programmed well and once we have put in place the measures that were planned, we know how to adapt.

“Organizational planning and preparation is important, because it then allows us to be able to adapt when things change.”

Thierry Ducret, chief of logistics staff for the Olympics

at franceinfo

It is often said in armies that “the first victim of war is the plan”. So the plan is there because we are putting a certain number of things in place, but we know that it is not going to happen like that. It’s normal.