So when Saturday dawns, like police football commanders all over the country, I will be getting ready for the day's match. In many cities across the country derby games are a regular event. Here it’s a bit more rare. Well, once in 5 years. But before 2005 there were several Saints v Pompey games and they were all high octane affairs. It has to be said, but it's often forgotten, that the last 2 games at Southampton went well and a good policing operation was a major part of that success. Can we repeat that? Have we planned well enough? Yes I think we have and by about 3 o'clock we'll know. I still maintain that what it's really about is a great sporting event run safely by the club and police for the benefit of everyone.
If I doubted for a second the level of interest in this match the endless press interviews etc. I have done would have made me realise just how big this is for the 2 cities. I've said before though that football or any big sport wouldn’t be the same without rivalry. By far the majority of people who will be at St Mary's today are there for the sport and good healthy rivalry. The few who take their club and city loyalty too far and wish to spoil such a great occasion will have to contend with a large and professional police operation and they may have to answer to the courts and face a banning order. How could any true fan risk being banned from seeing their team? Beats me.
I hope people in the city who are not interested in the game and just want to go about their normal business also know that we are there to allow them to do that. At key times of course there will be busy streets with traffic and crowds. There will be lots of noise and singing and chanting. That's nothing to be concerned about and we will have a police presence around the city all day. Most of the pubs are opening later in the morning and will be closed after the game for a couple of hours and I hope this means the City centre will clear quickly during the afternoon.
Here's wishing everyone a good day. Not all the fans will go home happy but at least, if I have my way, they will go home safe.
Friday, 12 February 2010
Friday, 5 February 2010
Planning for the derby game
I said I would report back on the work we are doing for the Portsmouth game. Here's a list of just a few of the things we've been up to.
We are still looking at this from the perspective of a major sporting event for the City so our work is about planning for a safe event with the football club and other City organisations. Of course we are planning for the possible risks too but our focus is on a great day for all the fans of both teams. Some will go away disappointed but I hope all will go home having had a great time in the City.
We are speaking to people in the residential and city centre business communities to discuss their needs and putting in place neighbourhood patrols to give any reassurance required
We've been working with the organisers to make sure the Chinese New Year celebrations planned for the Saturday and Sunday aren't affected by the football game,
Planning the duties and tasks of the 260 or so people involved in the policing operation, (including, very importantly, welfare and refreshments!) is a major task,
Making sure all the teams, including a mounted section from Thames Valley and British Transport Police colleagues and others all communicate and work together effectively, (in large operations for all organisations or businesses it's communications which are so often critical to success)
Working with pubs and clubs to agree how they can operate safely on match day and the Friday and Saturday nights,
Keeping alert to any signs of potential trouble and planning how we deal with any trouble makers including speaking to them beforehand (we know who most of them are) and making the arrangements needed if arrests are made,
Working on media and communications plans so we try and get more information out to people before, during and after the game, including making more use of social networking sites etc. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hampshire-Constabulary/22018596340)
Organising the police control centre at the stadium and our force command and control room at Netley (lots of people want to be involved and many people have a case for being in the control room but as I well know the police commander needs the control room at the stadium to be very carefully managed!)
And that’s just some of it. Fortunately I have a great team doing this work for me and I hope the fans will see what a good job we have done.
We are still looking at this from the perspective of a major sporting event for the City so our work is about planning for a safe event with the football club and other City organisations. Of course we are planning for the possible risks too but our focus is on a great day for all the fans of both teams. Some will go away disappointed but I hope all will go home having had a great time in the City.
We are speaking to people in the residential and city centre business communities to discuss their needs and putting in place neighbourhood patrols to give any reassurance required
We've been working with the organisers to make sure the Chinese New Year celebrations planned for the Saturday and Sunday aren't affected by the football game,
Planning the duties and tasks of the 260 or so people involved in the policing operation, (including, very importantly, welfare and refreshments!) is a major task,
Making sure all the teams, including a mounted section from Thames Valley and British Transport Police colleagues and others all communicate and work together effectively, (in large operations for all organisations or businesses it's communications which are so often critical to success)
Working with pubs and clubs to agree how they can operate safely on match day and the Friday and Saturday nights,
Keeping alert to any signs of potential trouble and planning how we deal with any trouble makers including speaking to them beforehand (we know who most of them are) and making the arrangements needed if arrests are made,
Working on media and communications plans so we try and get more information out to people before, during and after the game, including making more use of social networking sites etc. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hampshire-Constabulary/22018596340)
Organising the police control centre at the stadium and our force command and control room at Netley (lots of people want to be involved and many people have a case for being in the control room but as I well know the police commander needs the control room at the stadium to be very carefully managed!)
And that’s just some of it. Fortunately I have a great team doing this work for me and I hope the fans will see what a good job we have done.
Tuesday, 2 February 2010
Where will I be on match day?
In a recent blog on the Southampton Echo site (same as my earlier comment here) about the coming Saints v Pompey derby game at least one reader queried my statement that I was looking forward to the day. Where will I be? At home or in a cosy office, seemed to be the challenge. In the same way when I was talking earlier about problems in the City centre at night it was suggested that maybe I never trouble myself with actually experiencing the policing of the so called 'night time economy'. ( I'd rather call it what it is ie. city centre alcohol-fuelled violence, which incidentally is reducing)
I'm not trying to look clever but in fact, and in common with many other senior officers including our Chief Constable, I do go out on patrol. On 13th Feb I will be at the stadium as part of the police operation (no not just to watch the game) and I regularly go out on patrol in the city centre late at night and work weekends. I wish I could do it more often but a lot of my work does tie me to the office and the computer. I know officers and police staff in the City like to see leaders getting out and about. I think what they really like is when we are on patrol with them as long as we are actually with someone else on their team!
Planning for the derby game continues. We are talking to the pubs and clubs about their plans. Inevitably these can be places where problems might take place. For many fans having a couple of drinks as part of the occasion is great but some will over do it and we'll deal with that. We are, and will continue, talking to residents and businesses about any concerns they have. When the new stadium opened the club and police did a lot of work reassuring the stadium's neighbours who were worried about the impact of the new ground. Of course 20-30,000 people passing through an area brings some problems but generally week in, week out games are peaceful and many of the fears were unfounded. I think the same may well be true on 13th February. I'm not naive or sticking my head in the sand, I just believe that the thousands of good fans will dominate the day and the good club and police operation will tackle any problems. I am sure Echo readers will be amongst the first to tell me if I am wrong.
I'm not trying to look clever but in fact, and in common with many other senior officers including our Chief Constable, I do go out on patrol. On 13th Feb I will be at the stadium as part of the police operation (no not just to watch the game) and I regularly go out on patrol in the city centre late at night and work weekends. I wish I could do it more often but a lot of my work does tie me to the office and the computer. I know officers and police staff in the City like to see leaders getting out and about. I think what they really like is when we are on patrol with them as long as we are actually with someone else on their team!
Planning for the derby game continues. We are talking to the pubs and clubs about their plans. Inevitably these can be places where problems might take place. For many fans having a couple of drinks as part of the occasion is great but some will over do it and we'll deal with that. We are, and will continue, talking to residents and businesses about any concerns they have. When the new stadium opened the club and police did a lot of work reassuring the stadium's neighbours who were worried about the impact of the new ground. Of course 20-30,000 people passing through an area brings some problems but generally week in, week out games are peaceful and many of the fears were unfounded. I think the same may well be true on 13th February. I'm not naive or sticking my head in the sand, I just believe that the thousands of good fans will dominate the day and the good club and police operation will tackle any problems. I am sure Echo readers will be amongst the first to tell me if I am wrong.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
