‘Safety, security and service’: behind the scenes with police at Arsenal v Chelsea

· Guardian-Football

Facial recognition and spotters part of operation at Emirates that involved a dozen incidents and two arrests The concourses are silent when, deep in the Emirates Stadium’s bowels, Chief Inspector Pete Dearden’s briefing begins. Arsenal’s 4.30pm kick-off against Chelsea is still hours away but the fixture carries significance as a London derby and because the Premier League champions are hosting a realistic challenger. Dearden is a senior officer in the Metropolitan police’s public order command and Sunday’s matchday commander. He is, to borrow football jargon, giving the pre-match team talk, running through intelligence and in-game tactics. “Set the right style and tone,” he says. After Dearden has finished, the police room becomes a pseudo-station for the afternoon, with all incidents triaged by the same crime officer. Football offences can be found in niche legislation, and the Met wants London’s matchdays to be, so far as possible, policed uniformly.

The concourses are silent when, deep in the Emirates Stadium’s bowels, Chief Inspector Pete Dearden’s briefing begins. Arsenal’s 4.30pm kick-off against Chelsea is still hours away but the fixture carries significance as a London derby and because the Premier League champions are hosting a realistic challenger.

Dearden is a senior officer in the Metropolitan police’s public order command and Sunday’s matchday commander. He is, to borrow football jargon, giving the pre-match team talk, running through intelligence and in-game tactics. “Set the right style and tone,” he says. After Dearden has finished, the police room becomes a pseudo-station for the afternoon, with all incidents triaged by the same crime officer. Football offences can be found in niche legislation, and the Met wants London’s matchdays to be, so far as possible, policed uniformly.

Matchday is the iceberg’s tip. The Met’s 17 dedicated football officers (DFOs) each work full-time on one club, planning each fixture with the matchday commander. All 500-plus games the Met covers per season are risk-graded using factors such as risk level of supporters, proximity, recent history and kick‑off time. Dearden labels Sunday’s game “medium medium”.

“Our mantra is safety, security and service,” Dearden says. “We appreciate that with 60,000 people in the stadium not everybody is going to behave, but we want to reduce the overall risk of the likelihood of disorder.”

Chief inspector Pete Dearden gives a briefing in the police room inside the stadium three hours before kick-off in the match between Arsenal and Chelsea. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Three police support units (PSUs), each containing an inspector, three sergeants and about 21 constables, have been assigned to the match. In addition, there are the senior team and 20 operational football officers, or “spotters”, on duty.

Clubs also have their own in-house safety teams, with, in effect, both parties doing their homework before collaborating. Arsenal’s operation involves about 1,000 stewards and response team members. They are the first responders to any incidents within Arsenal’s footprint. When a Chelsea fan overzealously reacts to his team’s early lead, the response team remove him.

Stadiums are not policed as standard, but clubs can request (and, if the request is accepted, pay for) special police services (SPS). Arsenal asked for one PSU to work within the Emirates for Chelsea’s visit but even then, police intervene only when required. Dearden estimates policing football costs the Met £23m a season, with approximately 10% recovered from clubs for SPS.

The Met is looking to close that gap, with aspects such as road closures and hostile vehicle mitigation now managed, and financed, by clubs. Dearden says his department is looking at “mitigation measures to reduce risk, which means that we don’t have to have as many police resources and we don’t compromise safety and security”.

Using spotters is one such measure. They work under the DFOs, are usually locally based for their day-to-day duties and operate consistently with one club. Dearden estimates that their expertise allows them to do the work of double the number of public order officers that would otherwise be needed. “They will go to pubs in the wider footprint where these people gather and try to identify what their plans are, get a good feeling for their mood and the numbers,” Dearden says.

Some Chelsea spotters are in Holborn and will follow when supporters journey to Arsenal by tube. Fans being unwilling to engage with spotters may indicate they are planning something. “You can get a good idea of whether they are potentially going to cause problems at a game because of that lack of engagement,” Dearden says. “It’s that communication approach again – even with some of the supporters that cause us problems, albeit a minority, there’s still engagement to be had. There are still opportunities to say: ‘Don’t do that.’”

Immediately before the match one spotter performed CPR on a supporter. The intervention was life-saving.

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