Police from around the world are coming to Toronto to provide insight on World Cup fanbases

Police from around the world are coming to Toronto to provide insight on World Cup fanbases

Officials shared police news, update on water bottle ban at Friday news conference

Police officers from other countries will be heading to Toronto for the World Cup to provide local law enforcement intelligence and insight into how different fanbases might behave, officials say.

At a news conference Friday, Deputy Chief Robert Johnson said foreign officers will provide the Toronto Police Service with advice on the ground and at the force's command centre in order to better respond to situations with diverse crowds.

"People celebrate differently, people support teams differently, some more aggressive than others," said Johnson.

"We want to make sure that we are able to understand the crowd dynamics of an individual group that we might not have experience with here before in Toronto," he said.

Additionally, Johnson said tens of thousands of officers are ready to be deployed during the tournament's duration from other police services such as Durham, Ottawa, the Ontario Provincial Police and the RCMP.

That news comes as city officials gathered at Friday's news conference to share their latest updates on transit, congestion and the recent water bottle ban by FIFA ahead of the tournament.

Johnson said the city is expecting nearly 300,000 visitors to arrive for the World Cup.

Inside Toronto police's command centre for the FIFA World Cup

FIFA taking second look at water bottle ban: secretariat

When asked by reporters at the news conference about the ban on refillable water bottles at host stadiums by FIFA, Sharon Bollenbach, the city's FIFA secretariat, said she was aware of the concerns and is not sure why rules suddenly changed.

Bollenbach said she reached out to FIFA and is now waiting to hear back about their final decision.

"They're sort of taking a second look at that," she said. "I think safety was a factor [in FIFA's decision], that certainly was what was communicated."

Bollenbach said the city is allowing fans to bring clear plastic water bottles to fan festival events, which will have refill stations available. She also said water trucks and trailers will be posted around the city to help people stay hydrated.

Fans, city react to FIFA ban on refillable water bottles at World Cup stadiums

Dr. Michelle Murti, Toronto's chief medical officer, said at the news conference she was concerned about how the temperature and possible heat alerts may impact attendees due to the ban.

"That is part of the response we provided to the FIFA committee, that we want to make sure we are looking at everything possible so that fans in the stadium can maintain proper hydration," she said.

She said the city has measures in place to address heat alerts, such as places people can go to cool down.

Arrthy Thayaparan is a Toronto-based multimedia journalist. She's interested in health, climate and community stories. She has previously worked at Reuters and CBC Vancouver. You can contact her at arrthy.thayaparan@cbc.ca.