Scheduling Security Personnel for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games

The Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (V2010‐ISU) ensured security during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. Over six thousand Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers provided round‐the‐clock security for 30 venues and 27 functions. The V2010‐ISU needed to develop shift schedules for the RCMP officers so that not only were hourly security requirements met, but work shifts needed to satisfy a variety of scheduling constraints (shift lengths, start times, rest periods, etc.). As the number of personnel that were required for each hour at each venue was anticipated to change, V2010‐ISU planners required an automated means of generating efficient schedules quickly. This paper details the mathematical programming model which formed the basis of a software tool that was developed to assist security planners in personnel scheduling. It provides a novel mathematical formulation for the technique of applying integer programming to scheduling problems, in the context of an important practical application.