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28 Policing Soc'y: Int'l J. Res. Pol'y 1 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/pgsty28 and id is 1 raw text is: POLICING AND SOCIETY, 2018 outlede VOL. 28, NO. 1, 1-16 https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2015.1126267 Taylor & Francis Group Policing football 'risk'? A participant action research case study of a liaison-based approach to 'public order' Clifford Stott', Owen Westb and Matthew Radburna 'School of Law, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK; bWest Yorkshire Police, Halifax, UK ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY This paper reports upon the first formal academic analysis of the Received 17 July 2015 deployment of a dialogue based and explicitly non-coercive 'Police Accepted 26 November 2015 Liaison Team' (PLT) within the public order policing operation surrounding a football fixture. The study uses an approach based upon KEYWORDS Participant Action Research to first generate changes to operational cr order; olicing; practices and then to analyse the consequences of these changes upon hooliganism; liaison; dialogue the dynamics of the event and of the public order policing operation itself. Data is drawn from multiple sources including direct observation and post event focus groups. It is argued that the PLT played an important role in terms of enhancing police capacity for dialogue and communication with 'risk' fans, adding depth and quality to risk assessment as well as assisting in the avoidance of 'disorder' and police coercion. Problems were identified in terms of strategy, inappropriate deployment of the resource by police commanders and resistance to change among police staff. The implication of the study for understanding 'risk' is discussed along with the role of PLTs in helping to achieve proportionality and efficiency in the policing of football. Introduction In April 2009 there were demonstrations surrounding the G20 international summit in London. During those protests Mr Ian Tomlinson, a local newspaper seller on his way home from work, was struck with a baton and pushed over by a police officer. Mr Tomlinson died shortly afterwards. In the wake of his death a high profile media campaign forced the Metropolitan Police Service to request an inquiry into its policing of the event by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of the Constabulary (HMIC). What began as a specific inquiry into the policing of the G20 (HMIC 2009a) then grew into a fundamental review of public order policing across the UK (HMIC 2009b). The recommendations laid out in the HMIC's Adapting to Protest (ATP) review led to some of the most significant and far reaching policy reforms in the UK with respect to police national guidance for public order since the 1980s (HMIC 2009b, ACPO 2010, College of Policing 2014). Underpinning these reforms is recognition of the centrality of the Human Rights Act (1998; HRA) for command decision-making with respect to the policing of crowds (Fenwick 2009, Mead 2009, Stott and Gorringe, 2013, Channing 2015). The changes were also reinforced conceptually by a theory of crowd psychology referred to as the Elaborated Social Identity Model (HMIC 2009b, Chapter 4; Stott 2009). Consequently, a number of recommendations within ATP focused on the development of police capacity to engage in 'non-coercive' dialogue with crowd participants as an integral and primary component of public order policing within the UK (HMIC 2009a,b); manifest CONTACT Clifford Stott c.stott@leeds.ac.uk © 2016 Taylor & Francis

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