Police Costs will hit Lots of Clubs

On November 4th Bulls News published an article suggesting the costs charged by police forces for each 'police person' at an event.

Today Ciderspace, the respected Yeovil website, has come up with some more information on these police costs and how they might effect not only football matches but other events.

Below is a slightly edited version of the Ciderspace article:

Following our item on the battle between Hereford United and West Mercia Police (31st October) - the club are still taking legal advice - more is emerging on the plans of the Association of Chief Police Officers on the recovery of costs.

Each police officer will be charged for at a minimum of six hours, indeterminate of the period actually spent 'on duty' in relation to the relevant football club. This is purported to be to cover the time required to parade, obtain equipment, be briefed, transported to deployment points and then returned to base, and debriefed. So what does this mean in practical terms?

The most recent figures we've found to hand are the hourly rates effective from 1st January 2007. On those rates six hours would be charged at:
£312.72 (£475.92 on a Public Holiday) per constable; £374.76 (£564.84 on a Public Holiday) per sergeant. Each inspector would cost £356.76. Any police dogs, horses, specialist vehicles and helicopters deployed would be costed separately and additionally. Likewise other officers from adjacent forces linked to the policing of the football match would be charged at unspecified 'special duty rates'. Where coming from distance one could see charges being levied for far more than six hours. Further revision of charges is proposed to take place every January 1st. Though we've not seen if that occurred in 2008 one doesn't suppose there'll ever be revisions downwards.

So just a small presence at a stadium of twenty constables, a couple of sergeants and an inspector would weigh in at £7,360.68 (and £11,004.84 on a Public Holiday). However the police are of course in the Hereford case attempting to charge for all ancillary policing of highways and byways, public car parks etc. away from the stadium; and presumably the 'drop-ins' we frequently see at local pubs on match days, the presence at railway stations and so on are all to be racked up at six hours per officer. Therefore even clubs that have little or no cause to need policing at the ground for the vast majority of their matches could find themselves presented with potentially huge bills for every single fixture.

This is a football site, so naturally we are concerned with the issue from that perspective. But before any smug types who think football is the home of hooligans and yobs, we've brought it on ourselves, and it has nothing to do with them, turn away: all profit making events - every sporting event from Royal Ascot to the local gymkhana, concert, trade or agricultural show to village fete - where direct or indeed indirect policing, like a bit of traffic control, is deemed necessary by the police is open to charging. On the way to a recent football match we were driving through a small village in the heart of 'middle England' which was holding its annual Oyster Festival, and six officers (those were the ones we saw) had been deployed on traffic control. Cough up a minimum £1,876.32 please. Even charitable events, though at a reduced rate, will be eligible to be charged.

If the proposals as they currently stand are affected, and if all policing, both on site and ancillary to the event, is directly charged in full it's hard to see how many smaller teams and events will survive, and not just in football.

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