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<\/p>\n\u201cThere are different levers that we could pull or our commanders on the ground could actually pull, but in order to get that bird\u2019s-eye perspective of what was transpired, our drone program was invaluable for that,\u201d Chapman told a news conference Monday.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Chapman spoke of the potential risks that became apparent at the first match, between Australia and Turkey on June 11. Police \u201cthought we had it right on day one, and we realized we didn\u2019t,\u201d he said, describing an incident when the way police public safety officers were deployed on the ground on the so-called \u201clast mile\u201d to the stadium was causing congestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really saw that crowd stack up at the turnstiles going into BC Place \u2026 we were like, well, we can\u2019t have this anymore, we\u2019re going to need to make a change here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so we made a small operational change, basically the physical deployment of those officers in the last mile area that filtered the crowd in a much more effective manner and created a smoother entrance into the BC Place area.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the drone deployments on game days were over the last mile walk towards BC Place.<\/p>\n
There were 745 unauthorized drone flights noted on Vancouver\u2019s seven match days, the department said in a news release.<\/p>\n
It said 45 operators were identified and told to bring down their drones, while another 40 drones were remotely jammed and removed from the sky in restricted zones, including around BC Place and over the Fan Festival in East Vancouver, during the same period. <\/p>\n
\u201cAirspace can become very congested and the last thing we want to do is have drones colliding with each other and or drones collided with manned aircraft,\u201d Chapman said, noting the water airport in Vancouver Harbour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also had to keep in the back of our mind that unfortunately you look across the world and you see drones and the weaponization of drones and how that might transpire.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that in some situations, police contacted drone operators and told them to land their craft, while in others, jamming technology was used to send the drone back to its operator or into the hands of police.<\/p>\n
Chapman said airspace is a federal responsibility, \u201chence why we brought in some of our partners with the RCMP to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, Chapman hailed the World Cup a policing success. <\/p>\n
The department said in a statement that as many as 1,300 officers were out on each of the seven matches with support from RCMP, Metro Vancouver Transit Police, and officers from the Delta, Calgary and Edmonton police services. <\/p>\n
The department said there were just three Criminal Code arrests in the fan festival out of about 500,000 visitors, which Chapman said spoke to the positive fan behaviour during the games. <\/p>\n
When asked if there were any major surprises, he cited the years of planning and responded, \u201cI want to say almost proudly, no.\u201d <\/p>\n
The department said 16 foreign nationals were arrested across all FIFA venues, including the stadium, the fan fest and the Granville entertainment district, for either breaching the peace or being drunk in a public place. \u2028<\/p>\n
While there were 36 Criminal Code arrests in the Granville entertainment district, Supt. Jeff Neuman said it was \u201clargely peaceful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neuman highlighted the years of planning that went into the event, but noted more uncertainty came once the group stage ended. Vancouver hosted five group stage matches and two knockout games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was when we got to the winner-playoff series that it just gave us less time to plan for our intelligence for the teams that did come here,\u201d he told the conference.<\/p>\n
But Neuman said VPD\u2019s experience working with protest groups helped them prepare for potential \u201csoccer hooliganism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chapman said the department was now in a \u201cdemobilization phase\u201d as officers return to regular duties. <\/p>\n
And when asked about updates on policing costs, he deferred those questions to the city and province, saying it is \u201cvery complex\u201d due to cost-sharing agreements between various levels of government.<\/p>\n
The provincial government said in April that the federal government would provide $100 million to help pay B.C.\u2019s World Cup security costs.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2026. <\/p>\n
Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThere are different levers that we could pull or our commanders on the ground could actually pull, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[879,49,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82,55],"class_list":["post-815788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}