'Army and police join forces to beat bug
The Army could be on hand to help with millennium emergencies
The Army is working with police to draw up contingency
plans to deal with a millennium bug emergency, a senior
police chief has revealed.
High-level talks are under way to provide military support
to police in the event of chaos caused by computer
failure in the year 2000.
The Army could provide air support and other assistance
to help move police from "hot spot to hot spot" if
emergency services, hospitals, transport systems and
other computer-controlled networks collapse because
their equipment fails to recognise the double zero as the
year 2000 dawns.
John Evans, Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall
Police and the Chairman of the Millennium Co-ordinating
committee for the Association of Chief Police Officers
(Acpo), confirmed that the Army was involved in
emergency planning as he signed the Millennium
Pledge, a promise to take action to tackle the computer
bug, on behalf of Acpo.
Mr Evans said: "Discussions are going on up and down
the country with top Army officers.
"From there, individual forces
are building their plans to see
what military assistance they
will be able to make use of in
the event of difficulties."
The talks were part of regular
police contact with the Army
to discuss contingency plans
for emergency situations, he
said.
Possible military involvement
in providing police support in
the year 2000 emerged earlier in November after a
leaked memo from Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar
suggested Territorial Army soldiers could be necessary
to maintain services.
And in another move to prepare for the dawning of the
new millennium, Mr Evans said leave was being
cancelled for all police officers over the four-day
extended bank holiday to ensure forces were up to
strength.
Gwynneth Flower, Managing Director of Action 2000, the
company set up by the government to encourage
companies and services to tackle the bug, said the
police would not be the only ones going into work.
Between 40% and 50% of the UK's employees would be
called in over the bank holiday - many of them to ensure
that computer problems were solved before the start of
business after the break.
Acpo said police forces were on target to make their
systems "Year 2000 compliant" in time for the
millennium.
So far £12m has been spent updating networks including
force computers, the Police National Computer and
fingerprint database.
'No special plans'
The Cabinet Office played down the significance of the
Army's involvement in emergency planning for the
millennium.
The discussions were part of a regular liaison between
the emergency service and the army to ensure
measures were in place to deal with any civil
emergency, a spokeswoman said.
But there were no special plans for the millennium.
She said: "Under normal circumstances, any possible
emergency that might arise might have some sort of
contingency plan. That's normal procedure.
"There are no special plans for the millennium. There are
normal plans in case anything happens."
An Army spokesman at the Ministry of Defence
confirmed that the police and army officials had begun
talks.
But he said: "These discussions are at an embryonic
stage and no commitment has been made by the army.
"We are open to approaches and we are well placed to
assist in certain areas," he said. |
