Targeting Trouble-Makers Could Mean More Football Arrests

Targeting trouble-makers at football matches could be the reason that stadium arrests in England are at their highest levels in years.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts, Head of the Football Policing Unit, said fan disorder is “getting worse”, with more than 800 football-related arrests and over 750 reported incidents of disorder across the top five English leagues in the first six months of the season.

South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said that better police intelligence might account for some of the figures.

He said: “Football matches are always a problem for us, I don’t think it’s necessarily getting any worse or any better, it’s always a drain on policing, but what we are better at doing is targeting arrests and intelligence-led arrests

“I’d want to read a little bit more as to why it’s actually happening. Is it that actually we’re getting better at identifying trouble-makers and arresting them? Because back in the day, when there wasn’t good-quality CCTV, you wouldn’t be going in and necessarily arresting individuals. All you’d be about would be keeping the peace. Whereas now, when there’s disorder at football matches, they arrest people that they’ve targeted – there’s CCTV, there are evidence-gatherers.”

But he said that disorder was still an issue at football matches in South Yorkshire.

He said: “Policing is stretched too far in terms of football. I know there are legal cases where we have to provide policing at the expense of the taxpayer, but I still think that football clubs have a much bigger responsibility to pay more of the bill towards things.

“But I think we police football matches very well up here, we’re quite robust.”