Drones, AI-driven predictive modelling and facial recognition are proposed in projects by the police at Premier League football grounds.
The NPCC says that police forces will work with Premiership clubs in London, Merseyside and the West Midlands. Police say the drone use is to manage public safety risks; the live facial recognition to identify serious offenders; and the predictive modelling for data to analyse crowd dynamics; again, for public safety. Chief Constable Mark Roberts heads the UK Football Policing Unit, the national lead for football policing. He said: “This is a positive joint approach between policing, the Premier League and clubs to deliver safe and secure football events for supporters and the general public. It enables us to develop technologies that will assist us in our joint efforts and I cannot think of any similar initiative anywhere else in the world. The additional benefit is that it will allow us to develop national capability which is transferable to other areas of policing and public safety.”
For the the Premier League, Clare Sumner, Chief Policy and Social Impact Officer, said: “The experience and safety of our fans is a key priority, and the Premier League is committed to making our stadia as welcoming as possible for everyone.
“The Premier League recognises the significant contribution that police forces make to the safety of Premier League fans, both on match days and more broadly in the communities that our clubs are at the heart of. I am pleased that this partnership will take our collaboration further, building an even stronger relationship between the Premier League and police.”
Background
As police say, the vast majority of football fans and matches are peaceful. Police statistics as released annually by the Home Office suggest that hooliganism is not necessarily around the largest, Premiership clubs (that have copious video surveillance and stewarding, and are well able to detain and identify trouble-makers) but at lower league grounds; a recent court case of disorder dating from 2023 involved Thames Valley rivals Reading and Oxford United, of the third tier. Also, football-related violence and drunken behaviour may happen on the way to or from a stadium: at a pub, railway station or motorway service station or on trains. Even non-league has a hooliganism problem; for example last month, Hampshire Police sought additional powers – a dispersal order – ahead of an FA Trophy match between local rivals Eastleigh and Aldershot.
About the chief
Roberts, the chief at Cheshire, was responsible for the UK’s policing support to the European championships in 2016 in France and the 2018 World Cup in Russia (complicated by the Skripal poisoning by Russian agents in Salisbury months before the tournament). He has led an independent review into football policing on behalf of Police Scotland.
Photo by Mark Rowe: the London Stadium, the home of Premier League strugglers West Ham.
