Pre Season Friendlies – or not….?

We are rapidly approaching the start of the new Football Season and all of our clubs are in the midst of their Pre Season ‘friendly’ build up. These games are managed by the West Midlands Football Unit in exactly the same way as every league fixture. The dedicted Football Intelligence officer will link in with their ‘home’ counterpart in advance of the game and then on the day the Football Intelligence Officer and at least one club ‘spotter’ attend the fixture (not including internationals).

The ‘out of season’ period is also a time when Police Forces nationally review their local ‘data’ and the UKFPU (United Kingdom Football Policing Unit) report on the national developments / trends. We are still awaiting the end of season report to be published by UKFPU but the mid way report suggested arrests at fixtures are continuing to drop, but instances of reported disorder are increasing. Certainly West Midlands experience would be that disorder and use of pyrotechnics increased throughout last season. Of note was that in the West Midlands more arrests were for Affray and Public Order offences and not the traditional Drunk Entry or Drunk in View offences that you may expect to see contributing to the arrest figures.

It is therefore disapointing to note that from the 2013 – 2014 pre season friendlies, we have already recorded behaviour that not only impacts on those fans nearby but could lead to arrest. This includes the use of smoke grenades (although one male was arrested and found to be in possession of more), particularly aggresive and anti social behaviour towards stewards, pitch encroachment and by away fans coming to us, significant damage to a club bar area. In addition British Transport Police in our area have advised that they are investigating a number of incidents including the emergency stopping of a busy passenger service when the Emergency Chord was pulled by football fans.

At the start of last season West Midlands Police gave an explicit direction that officers were to put engagement before public order as the match day policing priority. As a football unit we were and are passionate about getting to know and conversing with as many of our clubs supporters as possible. There is however only a certain amount of time in the day and increasingly our activity is being directed towards the unnacceptable behaviour of the few. We know this involves the minority and to be fair its our job. I want to assure anyone reading this that where there is the evidence and its right to do so, I will ensure that either we or the local officers go back and make that arrest or take appropriate action following a vountary attendance if its not done at the time.

As a unit we do not have a performance criteria around arrests, but what we do have is a strong sense of whats acceptable football banter and what has crossed the line into offending behaviour. We understand what the law requires and allows us to do and as we start the new season I want to remind and reassure fans that we may be friendly, but we will do our job.

Policing Walsall FC v Shrewsbury Town FC 2013

On Saturday 2^nd March2013, Walsall hosted Shrewsbury Town in a league fixture. Prior to this season, the two clubs had last met in 2007 in the FA Cup and that fixture resulted in one of the most serious incidents of Football Disorder that the West Midlands has ever seen. From that incident there were over 20 arrests & convictions for Violent Disorder all with Banning Orders imposed. 

This season on October 14^th Walsall were away to Shrewsbury where again there was serious disorder. This time there were 18 arrests on the day, numerous injuries reported (including to Police Officers) and following press releases in both areas, approximately a further 20 arrested. The investigation into this case continues.

 So in summary over the last two games almost 60 arrests for serious disorder.

 As the game approached we received numerous intelligence reports, specifically intimating that disorder between sections of the two rival fan groups was again planned and it was clear that a significant Policing operation would be required. All of this at a ground whose games are regularly Police Free.

Planning meetings were held with Walsall Football Club, British Transport Police and The Saddlers Club (a private Social Club within the ground, used by home and away fans). There were many ideas discussed by the police and the club, these included:

• All ticket for both sets of fans
• Early Kick off time
• No alcohol sales inside the ground                  

Ultimately none of the above were enforced and the only pre match ‘tactic’ used was to make the game all ticket for the travelling Shrewsbury fans. This was in keeping with our wider policy of not becoming involved with kick off times / TV arrangements etc.

Resourcing wise, the game would be managed by one Bronze Commander (at the ground) deploying  4 Public Order PSU’s (12 vans), four dogs, a prisoner handling capability and officers to deploy a mobile barrier – referred to as an ‘iron horse’. 

Our objective: 

• Deliver a friendly, engaging and reassuring police presence which allows genuine football supporters to enjoy their day out at the match
• Efficiently resource this event in a way that is proportionate to the intelligence and information we have.

As part of our engagement strategy and ‘no surprises’ we released a number of ‘tweets’ in the run up to the game, advising fans that there would be extra police on duty and reminding Shrewsbury fans that it was all ticket. On the day officers were deployed in and around Walsall Town Centre, the train stations and in Birmingham City Centre.

Our focus – as in all games, was to identify those supporters early on, who we recognise as having participated in, or attempted to provoke disorder previously and to respond to their behaviour on the day proportionally, but robustly. In doing so the vast majority of other fans should see little difference, other than an increased presence and slightly different arrangements at the end of the game. 

Prior to kick off, in Birmingham City Centre, a group of 6 Shrewsbury supporters were identified and issued with Sec 27 direction to leave notices. Subsequently one failed to leave the area and was arrested. (See footnote) Similarly a group of 40 known football risk supporters of Walsall FC were located inside a public house. Two of this group were arrested for breaching the terms of their football banning orders, three were arrested to prevent a breach of the peace (from their behaviour and demeanour, it was believed that they posed an imminent threat to public safety and public order) and the rest were served with again the Sec 27 direction to leave notices.

(The notices prevented them from going to the area by the stadium and the stadium itself).

Just before kick off, unfortunately a further 2 males were arrested for being drunk whilst attempting to enter the stadium, but the game passed off with no disorder or further arrests. Officers that had been deployed in Birmingham and Walsall Town Centre were moved to outside of the ground and the ‘iron horse’ crowd safety barrier was deployed half way along the Five Rivers Stand. The location of this was given specific thought by the Match Command Team, so that fans were separated, whilst allowing disabled supporters to exit the Five Rivers Stand in their usual way, without being inconvenienced. 

In addition to this some officers deployed around the stadium were positioned as a ‘filter cordon’ to allow controlled access to the coach park. Others supported British Transport Police at Bescot Station, both previous flashpoints for disorder. So whilst highly visible, the overwhelming majority of fans should have felt little impact of the police being there. 

No disorder occurred throughout the day and from the police point of view the operation was a success. There is of course the argument that nothing would have happened had the Police not being there, but we can only act upon previous knowledge. We realise that not all of our decisions are popular and some of you will not agree with the reasons why arrests were made or the use of Sec 27; however all decisions must be justified by the officer making that decision as being necessary and proportionate in all the circumstances. 

What is important is getting the balance correct between the 99% of fans who are attending a sporting event and the 1% who are intent on causing trouble. The result? No disorder for the first time in the recent history of the two clubs allowing supporters to enjoy the day…. 

Sec 27 dispersal notices are issued when an officer believes:

The presence of the individual in that locality is likely, in all the circumstances to cause or contribute to the occurrence of alcohol related crime and disorder, or a repetition of such.

This applies to persons over the age of 16yrs and requires them to leave the area as directed by the officer and prohibits them returning within a set period of time – not exceeding 48hrs

 

“Have you got nothing better to do…?!”

Until last season WMP regularly deployed Traffic Motorcycles to ‘escort’ coaches away from home grounds at the end of every fixture. Dependant on the number of coaches we expected they may also ‘meet and greet’ them, either from an allocated motorway meeting point or more generally as they arrive in the area.

This season – as part of our drive to reduce policing at football, the automatic assumption that bikes would be used was removed and the ‘rule’ instead was that ‘if the intelligence supported the use of them’ (i.e. we anticipated lots of coaches) then we would consider it, but only in support of the Clubs own Traffic Management Plans, to ease congestion around the stadium. That decision prompted more discussion than any other change made this year… for example

• How would we get the coaches parked up in time and away quickly?
• Did we even need to worry how long it took the coaches to get away?
• How would we ensure the coaches and people on them were safe? 

But crucially – how were we to manage the ‘risk’  of disorder that coaches full of fans, in almost stationary traffic, outside a football ground would pose. Surely any delay in moving vehicles would lead to an increase in coaches being targeted by that minority of fans intent on causing disruption? How would we answer to the public, if a person on the coach was injured? What would the clubs say?………..

This was clearly all going to lead to post match armageddon!!

By sheer co-incidence when researching something else I came across the case of Redmond – Bate v DPP 1999 where Police had arrested a group of 3 women Christian preachers for committing a Breach of The Peace, when the gathered crowd became angry and aggressive towards them. There was a bit more to it, but the Divisional Courts summing up can be summarised as this:

A key question for the constable was, from whom was the threat coming? And that in this case the officer’s attention should have been directed at the crowd, as the ‘threat’ to the peace was coming from them…

Generally I am not public order orientated, but this caught my attention as being completely relevant to the whole coach safety argument. Whilst the ‘disorder risk’ may not be present if the coaches were not there – the ACTUAL risk is infact coming from the very small minority of people outside of those vehicles who want to pick a fight.

So – more discussions later with the Public Order Tactical Advisors on the unit and then the Inspector and we were all starting to say the same thing – focus our tactics and officers on the ‘risk’ element and let everyone else manage themselves. Put simply, instead of worrying that the coaches may take a little longer to leave the area, worry about ensuring that that we know ‘who’ and ‘where’ that risk group are and place officers in the right place, with the right tactics and support to disrupt their behaviour. This quite obviously did not require traffic bikes at all!

Clearly its all about balance, but this example has led to an even greater focus as the season has developed, on directing the attention of the Match Commander towards protecting the majority by focussing ON the minority. We recognise that even in large numbers people will generally police themselves and we can manage big groups as long as we know where our minority are and understand correctly how they may behave. At bigger games small numbers of pro-active officers are now being placed alongside the Football Spotters to support them in managing and ultimately disrupting the behaviour of that minority and that is allowing us to keep Police numbers low, because as that old mantra says – “havent you got anything better to do?!”

Strati – The (Exciting) Football Prioritisation Matrix

As promised, this week it’s Part 2 of Policing Numbers at Football and the exciting subject of Strati – or its longer name Football Prioritisation Matrix. Simple to use but not so simple to explain!

Strati stands for Strategic Intelligence, which is put into a basic word document.  The document (Strati)  asks the officer completing it a series of questions, each with three or four drop down ‘answers’ to choose from. Each answer has an agreed points score, resulting in a final score. This in turn determines the ‘initial’ category of every fixture and is completed before the season starts. The Srati template is the same for every club, as is the scoring. So a score of 46 – 50 would be a Cat A at every club, be it Walsall or West Brom, whereas 91+ is our highest category (C-ir).

For those of you who read part 1 in this series you will be familiar with how police numbers increase as the Category goes up.

This information is shared with the clubs who run a similar system and the aim is for theirs and ours to match. This is important, as by agreeing categories and policing costs at the start of the season we and the clubs can forecast the budget. Although set early, Strati is continually assessed and amended – sometimes up until the day before a game. It is completed in its entirety by the Football Officers (constables) reviewed by myself and the Inspector. Senior Officers are then ‘informed’ of the match category. This ensures consistency, leaving little scope for an individual to influence policing numbers.

The matrix starts with the most basic questions – who is playing. Each club has its own score applied – between 1 and 20. This is based upon the fan behaviour during the previous season. As supporters you may think that this is pretty arbitrary, however this is not without several hours of debate and research into match reports and discussions with the clubs football officers across the country before agreement is made. This score considers the overall fan behaviour and not so much that of those very small groups, whose persistent behaviour is recognised further on in the document.

The headers are:

• The day of the match,
• KO time,
• Type of match (cup/ league etc),
• Anticipated total crowd / away attendance,
• Transport issues.
• ‘Recent incidents’ of both Home and Away fans,
• Previous history of that fixture,
• Other impact factors and match specific intelligence.

The first few headers are pretty straightforward, although they do change as the season develops, for example other games close by in the fixture list are ‘preferred’ by fans whilst others are seen as the big ‘away day’. The action of clubs can also impact e.g. ticket pricing or television agreements which change fixtures, (this season movement from Saturday afternoons to Friday nights in particular).

The previous history and recent incidents score is more contentious, as here the behaviour of a minority of fans has the potential to increase a match category. This section is not just about disorder, but could be the use of flares or smoke bombs, anti social behaviour or heavy drinking. This is probably the most reviewed and debated section of Strati within the Football Unit and is generally where the Inspector makes a final decision after discussion with the club. For this section it’s really important that we link in with our counterparts who know their supporters much better than we do, to inform and support our decision making. It’s also important that we don’t make assumptions and consistently cross check recent experiences:

For example at the end of last season WBA v QPR were involved in disorder resulting in convictions at court, but at games since its great to see both sets of fans drinking together. This has been taken into consideration at more recent games and has in part lowered police numbers at those fixtures.

The strength in Strati is that as far as is possible it stops officers (WMP) making independent decisions that are not supported – or sweeping statements to the detriment of policing and the clubs. It sets policing numbers, so ultimately budgets and it enables simple and transparent information sharing with the clubs. It should also offer reassurance to supporters that Policing numbers are not randomly set but accurately reflect the needs of each fixture.

Football ABC’s?… (The building blocks of football policing)

 

Do you know your ABC’s? – The basics of Police Numbers at Football..

This blog is part 1 of a series over the next few weeks that aim to explain some of the basics of Policing Football. If you have ever wondered how many Police are at a game, then this is for you……(Remember though that this is West Mids only and we don’t have horses!!)

Football Policing is simple really – it follows pre agreed officer numbers for each ‘category’ of game, pre identified officer deployments, proven tactics and a whole host of supporting teams & departments.

But then nothing in life is simple really is it?….

Each game is ‘Categorised’ as either Club Security (Police Free), Cat A, Cat B, C or C-ir. Club Security games are not really police free as WMP send Football Officers and at least one Football Spotter to EVERY fixture. At these games officers work from the ground control room alongside the club security team so that there is still consistency and importantly, information sharing.

Cat A, B and C are national categories and the amount of officers working a fixture goes up with the category. Cat A games are variable between 25 and 50 officers, whilst a Cat B has 75 officers and a Cat C has 100. Cat C-ir (the ir standing for increased risk) will be more than this – the final number being set by the Match Silver Commander.

That’s all easy then – until you realise that each club agrees different policing levels for each Category at the start of the season; so at Walsall and Coventry a Cat A is 25 officers, but a Cat C is 75 and 100 respectively. Then there are the other officers and staff to consider – for example traffic officers or prisoner handlers, (different each time)a person to co-ordinate and record all of the radio communication, a briefing officer, a loggist to record intelligence as it comes in, a tactical advisor, driver and staff officer for each Commander in the operation, and don’t forget the Football Spotters of course!

The bigger the game, the more people become involved and specific planning meetings are held to agree the tactics and responsibilities per ‘inside and outside’ Commanders for the day. By the time we are policing a Cat C fixture and above, our dedicated Multi Agency Control Room will be open where we work alongside British Transport Police and the Ambulance Service. This is also where yours truly can generally be found, talking on the radio, recording decisions in the Policy Book and tweeting information to twitter followers….

Now lets add in some police terminology – We don’t ‘deploy’ in tens, or twenties – we ‘deploy’ in PSU’s (a Police Support Unit). A PSU is made up of three vans of officers – each van having 1 Sergeant and 7 Constables on it (always remembering to ask for a driver within that 7 – you may smile, but it’s happened). Thus 3 vans = 24 officers managed by 1 Inspector – the PSU Commander. This makes a total of 25 officers and for those of you good with maths, you will note how in the example above each Category of game increased by 25 officers or 1 x PSU.

PSU Commanders answer to the Bronze Commander. These are Inspectors who have qualified in Public Order Training to ‘Command’ others at that level. Bronzes work alongside officers inside and outside of the ground to achieve the tactical aims of the Silver Commander. And the Silver Commander aims to deliver the Strategy of the Gold Commander. (A bit like your leg bone is connected to your thigh bone….etc) The Gold Commander in WMP is ACC Forsythe, who sets the overall force ‘style and expectations’ of football policing each year.

Can you see why the Football unit has its own dedicated full-time planner? Of course add onto that how we agree with the clubs the match category… a wonderful tool called STRATi… but let’s leave that until next week!