Rio de Janeiro's state security secretary acknowledged that cuts of $550M to his budget "pose a risk to the Olympics" when the Games open in three months, according to Savarese & Wade of the AP. Jose Mariano Beltrame said, "If I said the cuts won't impact anything, I wouldn't be accurate. I wish I could have more policemen. I wish they could work twice as much on the streets." Security "sits at the top of a long list of worries for South America's first Games." Beltrame said that Rio will deploy about 65,000 policemen and up to 20,000 soldiers "to guard the Games, the largest contingent in Brazilian history." The number is "about twice as large as London's force four years ago." Some of that effort is "aimed at keeping gangs from hillside favelas from reaching Olympic venues." The military is "expected to protect the venues as the police work the rest of the city, guarding subway lines, bus routes and busy streets." Beltrame is expecting protests, and said police "will draw on experience from the 2014 World Cup and the Confederations Cup the year before." Beltrame said that the cuts, "which come to a little less than a fifth of security's operating budget, will reduce bonuses, overtime pay, and keep him from hiring more police." He called new equipment, technology, and integration "the legacy of the Olympics" (AP, 5/6).
