Targeting trouble-makers at football matches could be the reason that stadium arrests in England are at their highest levels in years.<\/p>\n
Chief Constable Mark Roberts, Head of the Football Policing Unit, said fan disorder is \u201cgetting worse\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said that better police intelligence might account for some of the figures.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cFootball matches are always a problem for us, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s necessarily getting any worse or any better, it\u2019s always a drain on policing, but what we are better at doing is targeting arrests and intelligence-led arrests<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d want to read a little bit more as to why it\u2019s actually happening. Is it that actually we\u2019re getting better at identifying trouble-makers and arresting them? Because back in the day, when there wasn\u2019t good-quality CCTV, you wouldn\u2019t be going in and necessarily arresting individuals. All you\u2019d be about would be keeping the peace. Whereas now, when there\u2019s disorder at football matches, they arrest people that they\u2019ve targeted \u2013 there\u2019s CCTV, there are evidence-gatherers.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he said that disorder was still an issue at football matches in South Yorkshire.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cPolicing 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think we police football matches very well up here, we\u2019re quite robust.\u201d<\/p>\n