Peter Ford ’84 is a Olympic Security Coordinator at State Department, Diplomatic Security in Rio De Janeiro. He is a Special Agent with Diplomatic Security, which is the security arm of the U.S. Department of State. He was a senior U.S. representative, representing 23 different U.S. federal agencies, responsible for developing, coordinating, and implementing all U.S. government security policies for the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games. For the past 18 months, he was stationed in Rio to prepare the U.S.’s security presence at the Olympics, which included information sharing between the U.S. and Brazil, overseeing a security training program for Brazilian Olympic security officials, the protection of hard and soft targets, and the timely response to security incidents. There was “drama” pre-Olympics with the impeachment of the President, critical threat crime, Zika, and the water quality. However, the Brazilians provided a robust security presence and the Games were a success. The Brazilians again demonstrated to the world that they can host large sporting events.
