Yellowknife (May 16/03) - Security was tight in Yellowknife this week, but if you blinked, you probably missed it.

RCMP specialists followed United States ambassador Paul Cellucci everywhere he went, and Insp. Pat McCloskey was never far behind.

McCloskey is the officer in charge of criminal operations for the RCMP in Yellowknife, and it was his job to organize the security around Cellucci's visit.

"We did an in-depth analysis of the needs of the dignitary, an analysis of the threats that could be involved," he said.

"Based on that information we put together a plan to meet the needs of the dignitary while in our area."

Cellucci made a four-day visit to gain more knowledge on the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline and spoke at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon about American and Canadian relations.

For Cellucci's appearance at the business luncheon, the officer in charge visited the site ahead of time to assess it for potential risks.

Another review was made just before the event.

McCloskey would not comment on the number of officers involved in providing security.

"We had a VIP team assigned to Cellucci during his stay. They are specially trained RCMP officers and the number involved is based on the risk analysis," he said.

All the RCMP security is undercover.

"We don't want to attract attention to the security," McCloskey said.

If you wanted to spot the security, you had to look closely for small details, like a radio receiver in a person's ear.

The security was hard to spot and, McCloskey said, in certain cases you couldn't spot the security if you wanted to. After the event members of security detail gathered around Cellucci and ushered him to the elevator.

The RCMP were called in by the protocol officer of the territorial government and asked to provide extra security.

"There were a couple of weeks of planning for this visit," said McCloskey, adding that for security officers, the visit was deemed a success.