Crowd safety - Police and Stewards

[Guest stidyup]

This got far longer than I wanted but, there you go.

I've been reading a few comments on here, I hardly ever post but I thought I'd share my views on this as for years I've thought that lessons of HIllsborough disaster we're never really learnt, I've been a steward in the past, so here's what I think.

Cat: What, am I the only sane one here? Why don't stewards stop pitch invasions and tackle violent fans?

Kryten: A superlative suggestion, sir, with just two minor flaws. One: we don't train stewards to deal with that. And two: we don't train stewards to deal with that. Now I realise that, technically speaking, that's only one flaw; but I thought it was such a big one, it was worth mentioning twice.

I've been reading on here people criticising the stewards for allowing the pitch invasion and failing to stop the fan hitting Kirkland.

I was watching the situation unfold and all I can say it was a disaster waiting to happen. However first I'll address the quote above.

Stewards are not trained to deal with violent crowd disturbances; in all my time as a steward this issue was never addressed. The basic function of stewards is crowd safety, searching fans and showing them to their seats. You never received training in crowd control. I'll repeat that again you never receive training in crowd control.

Some videos how to control crowds, note how all the police are dressed in riot gear and not a shiny green coat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH8T8zaJjhU&feature=related

http://people.howstuffworks.com/riot-control4.htm

The first step in crowd management is making sure a riot doesn't happen in the first place. Although sometimes riots erupt unexpectedly, they are frequently tied to planned protests and organized strikes. When the police think there is the potential that such a situation could get out of control, they contact the organizers and leaders of the protest or strike ahead of time. They set up ground rules that the protestors are to follow, and they designate a specific area for the event to happen in. The police assign specially trained officers to monitor the event. The point is that the police will simply provide a presence and work to ensure that everyone stays safe. Only if the ground rules are broken will any police action be needed at all.

Even if the officers themselves disagree with the opinions of the protestors, they are trained to maintain an unbiased attitude. "That's part of America," said Sgt. Bauer of the Cheektowaga Police Department. "You're allowed to have a voice." The officers try not to look at the protestors as enemies. Instead, they recognize that they are part of the community that the police are entrusted to protect and serve. "You can't go in like stormtroopers," said Sgt. Bauer.

While officers are trained to stay polite with the people in the crowd, they are careful to not give off an air of subservience. The police have to be seen as being in charge and in control at all times, even while they stay passive and allow the crowd to operate within the ground rules set out ahead of time.

This is the type of training you need to control crowds, this is something stewards never get. To make that point again the stewards in the ground never get this training. You will also note that all of these police officers are in riot gear. Now if you wanted me to get involved in skirmishes like this I want this gear on with a nice bit stick to hit people with.

Anyone reading this fancy getting involved in a riot with just a green jacket on and get paid £21 per game for a punch in the face which might mean you missing your real job? Remember the police in full body armour have the above training plus will be costing the club at least £30 per hour. Bit of difference.

When it all kicked off and seats and bottles started flying the Police Commander should have taken control as clearly what was happening had gone beyond the remit of the safety officer and was a public disorder issue. To be honest the stewards did a good job of keeping the Leeds fans back at the North West corner end, however watching the situation unfold it was clear there were insufficient people on the perimeter, although from the regulation point of view all boxes were ticked. From a crowd control point of view the numbers weren’t there, but the problem is the numbers you need to open the ground legally won’t be the number you need if it kicks off. However if it kicks off stewards can’t deal with it. That’s the police’s role as they have the training and the riot gear. Once the bottles started being thrown the police should have been streaming out to help the stewards regain control this didn’t happen. In fact the police didn’t appear until after Kirkland had been struck. If the police had been in place on pitch side before the equaliser I doubt this incident would have happened, and I highly doubt he would have got back into the stand if he had broke through and got on to the pitch.

I’ve been at matches where there have been pitch invasions, end of season affairs and no trouble, at the end of game debrief we then had the supervisor having a go for not doing as requested, as there was a drill about what to do, ie fall back to half way line. What was lost on them was the fact he only said this at the start of the game and no one had ever done this in a drill, plus there where communication issues about at what point it we should all fall back. Needless to say the end result was farce but luckily it was a good natured invasion so no problem. However 50 / 60 stewards are not going to stop a couple of thousand people getting onto a pitch in reality and no amount of drill is going to make it work.

http://www.fsf.org.uk/media/uploaded/Stand%20Up%20Sit%20Down%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

]Stewards Duties, Rights and Responsibilities:[/b]

To ensure that the requirements of the safety certificate and ground regulations are met at all times.

To be responsible for the safety and comfort of spectators within a designated area at all times, and this is a primary duty.

Assist in identifying those individuals who are banned from the stadium or those who do not have a ticket or posses a forged ticket.

Assist in dealing with breaches of ground regulations, such as supporters standing continuously.

Carry out ejections for breaches of ground regulations, such as for those carrying weapons.

Prevent entry to the stadium of those supporters who have been banned, those in breach of ground regulations or those in breach of specific legislation.

Selectively search spectators in accordance with club policies who are suspected of possessing or trying to bring in to the stadium any prohibited items.

Ensure gangways and exit/evacuation routes are kept clear.

Assist in any evacuation of the stadium and are fully aware of the procedure

Ensure they have knowledge of first aid rooms, safety equipment such as fire extinguishers.

Be fully conversant with any methods or signals used to alert staff that an emergency has arisen.

Be able to identify safety hazards and suspect packages.

Identify and investigate any incidents, reporting the findings to the supervisor.

Stewards Power of Arrest

Any person has a recognised power of arrest where:

(a) a breach of the peace is committed in his presence, (b) the person effecting the arrest reasonably believes that such a breach will be committed in the immediate future by the person arrested, or © a breach of the peace has been committed or the person effecting the arrest reasonably believes that a breach of the peace has occurred and that a further breach is threatened.

A breach of the peace occurs whenever harm is actually done or is likely to be done to a person or, in their presence, to their property, or where a person is in fear of being harmed through an assault, affray, riot, unlawful assembly or other disturbance.

Reading this you may notice that stewards are responsible for stopping those banned from gaining entry. Now how the hell they are meant to do this without any information on who’s banned, no pictures, no names etc... is beyond me. Stewards have been given responsibility for something they cannot police. The whole situation is a farce and the above has been developed by incompetent morons who clearly have no idea. If you are going to get stewards to enforce this then you’ve got to give them pictures of who it is they are meant to be stopping. The Leeds fan was banned from every ground in the country yet I suspect there would hardly be a single steward who could identify him, yet it’s their responsibility to stop him. Fair?

Now the real killer in all my time of being a steward which was about 7 or 8 years we also never practised an emergency evacuation. Think about this for a second you have a stadium full of stewards whose job it is to get you away and out of the ground safely in the event of structural failure or fire or crowd disturbance and not a single one has any real idea of what the feck to do in that event. Any of you reading this getting worried yet? I’ll repeat that not one single steward has been involved in a mock evacuation of the ground you are in. Now if you get on a airplane the flight crew are fully trained in what to do in an emergency to get you the people out as fast as they can. But in a stadium with 30,000 plus people your lives are in the hands of people who have received zero training in getting people out of the ground. Now I’m betting this is standard across every single football ground. Think about this if the SHTF in any football stadium it will be chaos as the stewards will have no idea about what it is they have do. They will panic just like the crowd.

This is further complicated now around many grounds with the use of agency stewards, you can’t brief someone once to do a job like evacuation in a ground they’ve only just arrived in. Yet this is what happens with agency staff. It simply wouldn’t happen on a airplane, but yet you accept this every time you enter a ground.

After the Hillsborough disaster you would have thought the football authorities and govt would have addressed these types of issues the answer is they haven’t. Football grounds are not as safe as the powers that be want to make out, there are serious issues which are glossed over for profit and because your only football fans. The malaise which allowed Hillsborough to happen is still around. Let’s be honest Hillsborough should never have been allowed to happen there were enough warning signs about the safety of grounds with Bradford and Heysel the authorities did nothing.

The police commander on the day is in overall charge the question has to be asked why the police in riot gear where not deployed sooner or even why standard police were not deployed when the first incidents of crowd disorder happened to boost steward numbers. For me he completely failed in his role on Friday night and I don’t think they are up to the job of being in charge of a football match. However there competence will be questioned. With what happened especially when Kirkland was struck total control could have been lost, luck was clearly on the side of the police on the night.

For me the problems of Hillsborough have never really been addressed. Supporters have been lulled into a false sense of security, just because you are sat down doesn’t mean the stadium is any safer than pre Hillsborough for the reasons mentioned. Structurally grounds may be safer but under that there are serious issues, which I’m amazed no one in the press has ever highlighted.

Stewards are cheap labour to replace the police but they don’t have the proper training or equipment to deal with riots or a stadium emergency despite what clubs will say, if another Bradford / Hillsborough happened it would be total chaos again, why because the authorities really don’t give a 5h1t about you or your safety. A few hours a year training is not adequate for the responsibilities stewards have, I was never convinced about what training I had and always felt it was inadequate for the role. However the training is what the FA/authorities want so that’s what you get box ticked and everyone can sleep easy.

Watching what was happening my trouble senses where tingling , the question is why weren’t the police commanders or the safety officers? Surely the safety officer was looking at the perimeter at Leppings Lane and thinking I need more people there if they score we are going to have a pitch invasion, we are containing the North West corner issue but rest is wide open, they are going to overwhelm the stewards. If it was me I’d be screaming at the police commander to get his officers in to man it. It would be interesting to know what conversations where taking place in the control room at the time.

As for allowing the Leeds fans onto the pitch and allowing the offender to get back off again you are paid £21 and clearly if you tried to arrest him you risked getting a kicking from the other fans or you might have triggered a riot with no police support around and get a kicking. At this point you need the professionals there who have the training and experience of dealing with crowd disturbances which your average part time steward have never had.

Most stewards are not hard men looking for fight, they are ordinary people who are probably just as scared as most fans of something kicking off, and really don’t have the skills / training or equipment needed to deal with major crowd disturbances.

You can rest assured none of the issues listed here will every be addressed, that's not what the authorities are there for.

[Freshfish]

That was a very very good read...and something that really should be more widely distributed. It does seem that Football Security is about making sure you just manage to tick the numbers boxes and keep cost to a minimum. Presumably the club will also be paying much more for extra police inside the ground.

The answer, as always is about risk and money...but surely it's time to do more to either have more police inside the ground or/and train stewards to a level where they are paid more for the extra responsibility but expected to do some of the jobs that currently may be regarded as too difficult.

[Guest stidyup]

Perhaps I should do a quick summary as I realise it's rather long.

Stewards only have basic training, they are not trained for major crowd control.

The police on the night failed and the police commander on the night should never be given another game again.

Other issues across the entire sector.

Mass evacution plans are never drilled.

Do you the fans know what the evacuation plan is at Hillsborough or any other ground?

If there ever is another serious incident like Bradford or Hillsborough it will end up in choas.

[Guest Deleted member]

Brilliant post - its a pity it wont reach a wider audience

[Freshfish]

At some point, if you are sure of your facts and the knowledge you have, maybe it would be brave and useful to come out from anonymity and contact the club at the highest level with regards your points?

[H2Owl]

Great post

[latemodelchild]

That's a fairly sobering read. Doesn't really paint a good picture does it? Quite worrying I'd say. Football had its priorities wrong and 96 people died. I'd say we are heading down that path again here. Probably wont lead to as many deaths thankfully, but it will take something serious before anything is done.

[Essix Blue]

One thing I've always thought should happen is the protection of the players. Crystal Palace? Wasn't one of their players assaulted at full time?

If there's a pitch invasion IMO you aren't gonna stop it - remember police were present v palace AND at pitch side yet they were told not to try and prevent fans getting on the pitch.

What should happen is a few stewards (the badged ones who actually can physically control unruley fans) should get on the pitch and get to a player to protect them - and the ref too.

[Guest stidyup]

To add to some points. This is what it was like 7 or 8 years ago when I last did the role.

For the evacuation stewards are told essentially you can have partial or full evacuation and it's either down the exits and out or onto the pitch. The reality is this is never drilled and those manning the gangways have little idea what it is they are doing in the event of an emergency. If the evacuation is onto the pitch, clearly there roll is to stop people going now the gangways into the ground. I suspect that in the event of a major incident they will fail to do this as they are never told this information. This is why people at Bradford died because they went to get out the way they came in, so this is a pretty major issue. As I highlighted aircrews are well trained in plane evacuation as they have to get people off the plane as fast as possible in an orderly manner and everyone knows there role in an emergency. With football stewards this isn't the case.

The entire evacuation plan in all grounds will be down to luck and everyone hoping they get away with it. When was the last time you read any police force club doing a mass evacuation drill in their ground? I can't name one since Bradford/Hillsborough.

I've watched games before on TV and seen stewards jumping up and down celebrating goals at other grounds, although I have never seen this at Hillsborough. Why are they doing this yes they may support the team but their job is to watch the crowd, you can't do this if you're celebrating a goal. You have to ask what the people in the FA are doing are they blind to this as well as council officials whose job it is to issue safety certificates? Any club where this happens should be hauled before the FA to answer charges and fined and the council should immediately look into the safety certificate. Again I can't recall any club ever being pulled up on this.

I've never felt that the number of stewards legally required is actually enough for crowd safety in the event of trouble, plus you also have the issue that even if you have numbers they are not trained to a sufficient level to deal with mass pitch invasions or violent disorder.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_Support_Unit_%28UK%29

All officers will be trained to the common minimum standards as defined in the ACPO Public Order Tactical Trainers Manual.^[2] The grades are dependent on the training that the officer has received.^[3]

• Level 1 - these officers (normally full-time PSU) receive regular training which can be every five weeks receiving training in shield tactics, violent person, petrol bombing and training in house entry and search. All public order officers need to be fit; a Level 1 officer must be able to run 1000 metres, dressed in full protective equipment whilst carrying a long shield, in less than 6 minutes.
  

• Level 2 - These officers are drawn from Boroughs, Divisions or Areas and some specialist units; they receive the same training as Level 1 officers but only attend twice a year for two days (or in some forces a 3 day course every 12 months). Level 2 officers must be able to run 500 metres dressed in full protective equipment whilst carrying a long shield in less than 2 mins 45 secs. If an officer fails any of the runs they are returned to their Borough/Division/Area without receiving training or qualification. The long shields the officers carry are 5'6" tall, 1'11" wide and weigh 17 lbs.
  

Stewards are not trained to this level and yet are expected to deal with violent disorder, it's clear they should be sent on at least Level 1 police training. However no MP / FA / or club is going to ask for this.

[Guest stidyup]

At some point, if you are sure of your facts and the knowledge you have, maybe it would be brave and useful to come out from anonymity and contact the club at the highest level with regards your points?

The last time I did the role these were the issues, I'm guessing the functions haven't changed since then nor the training given although granted it was 7 or 8 years ago since I was last a steward..

For me the evacuation plan should be printed in the programme each week. Yes it's boring but ultimately it might save your life, everytime you get on a plane you have to read the evacuation plan yet in the tightly packed stadium very few people have any idea what it is.

[Freshfish]

...maybe then you could compile a list of questions and suggestion and email them to the club? Then come back on here and give us the info on the reply?

Edited October 22, 2012 by Freshfish

[Bob]

A very good read and a reminder that people employed to steward at a football match are a token presence and are not trained or equipped to deals with thugs.

The Police Commander must have seen and heard the crowd and realised it was starting to get ugly before the pitch invasion by a mindless few. I say "pitch invasion" deliberately because the idiots that crossed the boundary wall did just that. They had no business to be there and the thug that went onto the field of play and committed a criminal offence should have been arrested that night. The police bottled it, although I would bet there were a few police officers present who were itching to get there hands on the thug, but were prevented from doing so by the Police Commander. How much has it cost the taxpayer to get him arrested and returned to Sheffield ?

[Guest Deleted member]

I do know the stewards have a fairly lengthy pre and post match briefing specific to the stand they work in

[Guest Stereophonics]

My uncle is a steward at Hillsborough. He used to really enjoy it as he felt that he was doing something for the club. He is, however, now thinking of packing it in, mainly due to the abuse he receives from Wednesday fans.

If I was him I would have packed in ages ago. Last season against Huddersfield ( the 4-4 game) a Wednesday 'fan' attempted to run on to the pitch to get to the referee. My uncle stopped him and explained that he was doing him a favour as he would have been banned from matches in the future. My Uncle's reward was to be punched in the face twice and kicked in the stomach.

He said that he got no support from the police nearby. Also, the stewards on the leppings lane end on Friday night were not Wednesday stewards, they were agency ones from G4S

[Guest Deleted member]

I totally understand this

Ive been working on the Car Park opposite the ground for a few games this season - and the abuse dished out by Wednesday fans to fellow wednesday fans who work for nothing, and help them get parked safely and conveniently makes me cringe. we have some absolute arseholes in our supporter base.

[bigrbuk]

This is fascinating (and scary) stuff and should definitely be sent to someone who can do something about this. Maybe we can be put in a more positive light for once by pushing through a new level of safety and security for the average fan.

[@owlstalk]

Interesting...