Police Liaison Officers at Football: Challenging Orthodoxy through Communication and Engagement

Abstract

This article expands upon research on the use of Police Liaison Teams (PLTs) within public order policing operations surrounding football fixtures. Using a Participant Action Research approach, the article reports on PLT use across multiple events and locations with different police forces, different personnel and fans and divergent command perspectives, as well as comparative data from PLT and non-PLT events. It identifies how accountability dynamics associated with the classification and management of risk in the policing of football may explain the continued reliance on more coercive policing tactics, as well as a number of other barriers that hinder the development of PLT use at football. Despite this, the article provides evidence that PLTs can offer similar benefits to the policing of football as they do to the policing of protest. In particular, we argue that developing such approaches will make the policing of football more human-rights complaint.

The true cost of policing football in England & Wales: freedom of information data from 2015-2019

“…In addition to this, previous research indicates that there is varying practice in terms of how police forces approach football policing (see Stott et al, 2008b;Hoggett & Stott, 2010;James & Pearson, 2015;Stott et al, 2018b;Hester, 2020;Hoggett & West, 2021). This is reflected in this data, as some forces are spending a lot more than others.…”

“…The College of Policing (2020) provide guidance around how football policing should occur, but this is somewhat limited in its prescriptiveness and therefore is left to interpretation by different police forces, and even different match commanders. There is a growing body of literature which suggests that a more liaison-based approach to the policing of football and an improved dialogue with football supporters could achieve a reduction in incidents of violence (Stott et al, 2008a;Stott et al, 2008b;Hoggett & Stott, 2010;Pearson, 2012;Stott, Hoggett & Pearson, 2012;James & Pearson, 2015;Stott, West & Radburn, 2018b;Stott, Pearson & West, 2019;Hoggett & West, 2021). Stott et al, (2019) and Hoggett & West (2021) in particular are critical of the high level of resourcing allocated to football policing, and the lack of a comprehensive threat assessment that leads to the police service being less efficient in their use of resources.…”

“…There is a growing body of literature which suggests that a more liaison-based approach to the policing of football and an improved dialogue with football supporters could achieve a reduction in incidents of violence (Stott et al, 2008a;Stott et al, 2008b;Hoggett & Stott, 2010;Pearson, 2012;Stott, Hoggett & Pearson, 2012;James & Pearson, 2015;Stott, West & Radburn, 2018b;Stott, Pearson & West, 2019;Hoggett & West, 2021). Stott et al, (2019) and Hoggett & West (2021) in particular are critical of the high level of resourcing allocated to football policing, and the lack of a comprehensive threat assessment that leads to the police service being less efficient in their use of resources. They also suggest that more bespoke resourcing that is well versed in football policing, will lead to better outcomes in terms of less disorder and a recued number of police officers allocated to football operations.…”

‘Football fans are not thugs’: communication and the future of fan engagement in the policing of Scottish football

“…In Scotland ultras groups are comprised predominantly, but not exclusively, of young people; and such groups have direct experience of the enforcement-led and surveillance intensive policing practices that were adopted following the passing of the 2012 Act (see Lavalette and Mooney 2013). Importantly, and recognising the heterogeneity in the football fanbase signalled by the presence of ultras, recent research on the policing of football fans has explored the effectiveness of new innovations, particularly the use of dialogue-based and non-coercive approaches (Hoggett andWest 2018, Stott et al 2018).…”

Pitched! Informants and the covert policing of football fans in Scotland

“…Despite the extensive and still growing literature on the policing of football in Scotland, and a plethora of research covering this matter elsewhere in the UK and beyond -particularly evident in the work of Clifford Stott (2014), Stott and colleagues (see Stott et al, 2012;Stott et al, 2018; and others (see Winter, 2016;Brechbühl, 2017;Testa, 2018;Laursen, 2019) -there has been a lack of attention given to the role of the informants in such contexts. More recent innovations elsewhere, such as the use of dialogue-based and explicitly non-coercive 'Police Liaison Teams' (Hoggett and West, 2018;Stott et al, 2018), and the practical use of legal instruments such as football banning orders (Hamilton-Smith and Hopkins, 2013;Hopkins, 2014), have attracted scholarly interest; but the role of police informants has been neglected in comparison. The neglect is perhaps perplexing given the deep history of the use of informants in other forms of policing, but possibly less surprising when situated in the context of a more general paucity of academic research on the use of this tactic (see Atkinson, 2019).…”