oversees largest operation in ten …

2,920 officers from the Police Service of Northern Ireland and have been involved in an extensive operation to assist with the visit of the US President Joe Biden to Northern Ireland this week. The Presidential visit, hosted by the UK government, saw the police service implement a major strategic operation which is the largest since the G8 summit in 2013.Assistant Chief Constable Chris Todd commented on the extensive nature of the planning and deployments: “The breadth of this operation has been huge and has involved 2,920 police officers from around Northern Ireland. Extensive planning and preparation has been implemented to ensure the safety and security of the US President, his officials and staff, as well as Prime Minster Sunak and other dignitaries.

“This has been an extremely busy time for policing across Northern Ireland, with Easter parades and a high footfall of visitors attending the various beauty spots over the Easter holidays. We have benefited over the last few days from 84 Mutual Aid officers who travelled to Belfast and surrounding areas and provided essential additional specialist capabilities and support. “Having such dedicated and professional colleagues ensured all operations were carried out expertly and I would like to thank all of our police officers, police staff and Mutual Aid officers for their contribution. Various road closures and cordons were put in place over the last few days so I would also like to thank the public for their understanding and cooperation.“This has been a complex and expensive operation delivered to internationally recognised standards and at present we anticipate the overall cost for the two week operation will be somewhere in the region of GBP7 million, however that is an early estimate and is subject to change.

“The Police Service of Northern Ireland will seek to recover what costs we can, under relevant established arrangements, once the operation has concluded and full details are known,” added Assistant Chief Constable Todd.

Road closures in Belfast City Centre are now being lifted and cordons and security barriers are being removed as the city returns to normality.