Swiss civil defence is organised on a federal basis. In agreement with the cantons and the Expo.02 management, the Federal Office for Civil Defence (FOCS) was responsible for coordinating this large-scale operation.

The Civil Defence provided over 48'000 days of service for Expo.02, of which almost 23'000 were spent on the Arteplages. 99 cantonal detachments (of 30 civil defence personnel) from all cantons worked on the four Arteplages.

This corresponds to a good 3'000 civil defence personnel and comprises almost 23'000 days of service or 166'000 working hours. The Civil Defence supported the security services, first-aid posts and car parking services during these missions. It also operated networked lost property offices at the Arteplages.

Civil defence medical services
23 cantonal teams of 10 to 22 paramedics from 18 cantons worked at the Arteplages in support of the Expo.02 medical service, which was provided by the Swiss Samaritan Federation.

These 270 paramedics performed 1,000 days of service. In the run-up to the event, a total of 21 preliminary cadre courses and 73 preparatory courses had to be held for the civil defence personnel deployed.

Expo.02 Cantons
In addition to these deployments of civil defence personnel from all over Switzerland, the Expo.02 cantons deployed a further 5'700 civil defence personnel and around 25'500 days of service for tasks in the areas of logistics and public safety.

The police were relieved above all in the area of traffic control. In terms of logistics, it was a matter of providing accommodation and catering facilities, transport and information tasks. The canton Vaud recorded the largest civil defence deployment with 3'500 people and over 9'800 days of service, followed by the cantons Bern with 1'200 people (and 8'900 days of service), Neuchâtel with 800 (5'400 days of service) and finally Fribourg with 200 (around 1'400 days of service).

Some figures
70'000 or more hours were spent by civil defence personnel monitoring the Expo.02 shores 
9'000 items handed in were registered in the lost property offices
5'600 lost property reports were received by the lost property offices 
3'700 found objects were returned to their owners

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