MORE than 200 police officers from Gloucestershire will be helping at this summer’s London 2012 Olympic Games.

Gloucestershire Constabulary will support the Olympic police operation by providing officers to assist for a total of 66 days.

The commitment of the force varies each day, ranging from a maximum of around 85 officers to as low as just one officer on other days. In total, but not on one day, around 205 individual officers from Gloucestershire will be working at the games.

The majority of officers will assist the Metropolitan Police and Dorset Police, which have the largest games operations.

While the majority of officers travelling to police the games are general beat officers, there is also a requirement for some specialist skilled officers to assist.

Gloucestershire has adopted a range of measures to maximise the number of officers available to assist with the games but also to continue policing across the force area. For example, annual leave has been restricted across the service, and non-essential training has been postponed.

Assistant Chief Constable Kevin Lambert, from Gloucestershire Constabulary, said: "While we, like all police forces, are providing officers to help police the major venues, the safety and security of everyone in Gloucestershire is of paramount importance. We have plans in place to ensure that our local policing response is not detrimentally affected."

In total 52 police forces are working together to resource the 105-day London 2012 Olympics, which begins on 4 June and runs until 16 September.

Gloucestershire Police officers will also be joined by team members from the Great Western Ambulance Service (GWAS) at the Olympics this summer.

GWAS will be supporting the London Ambulance Service at both the Olympic and Paralympic Games with a 14-strong team including five paramedics and six emergency care assistants.