Following my FOI request to all regional police forces asking for the number of football related arrests and how many of those lead to a conviction and/or banning order, several of them have contacted me to say the don't keep this data.

They are stumped when I go on to ask them exactly how the Home Office are then able to publish with a club by club breakdown the numbers for "football related arrests".

If police forces don't keep this data how can they realistically plan to police matches as surely the arrest data gives them a rough idea or at least contributes to any risk assessment completed to get an idea of how certain fixtures should be policed?

Odd. But I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation... :P

Will be interesting if several of the others contact you and are able to supply the data...this (bizarre) reply will have to be consistent across all forces

Let me get this striaght, police arrest people in connection with football disorder and do not keep any records about how they turned out.

eh!!!!!!

I'd be interested to find out the Lancashire police figures

I've had a chat with Ash and Malcom of the FSF and the gist of their advice is that they find it highly unlikely that police don't keep records of arrests. The football intelligence officer(s) for example would be likely to keep them.

Malcolm pointed out that FOIs are part of the force and it is not up to you to specify where you want them to look for the information you have requested.

When I said that it would seem that - from the ones I've spoken to - that the computer seems to be the only place the FOI staff are looking for information, I was advised that for the purposes of FOIA, it's irrelevant how the information is stored i.e on computer or in hard copy.

Collating the responses should keep me busy throughout the summer!

I'll keep you advised of progress.

I got my first reply today, from Sussex Police.. I'll post it up in a mo, but it occured to me that we could use this information to perhaps dispell the link between standing and potential trouble. While I've not asked for a club by club breakdown, 'league tables' of arrests are published. It would be brilliant if we could show that pro rata that a Premiership Club had more fans nicked than a club with terracing!

Incidentally, my main reason for collating the data was to see if Cleveland made more football related arrests than other forces. Every single force has acknowledged my request apart from, yep, you guessed it Cleveland. After spending 10 minutes trying to get the right phone number the conversatoin went like this..

"Hello.. can I speak to the person responsible for the FOI requets"

"Sorry, he's now on holiday for two weeks, so no requests are being handled".

"But I sent my request over two weeks ago, and if your colleague is now away for a forthnight, you won't have replied within the statutory timescale"

*Total disinterest* "Really, oh well, you'd better ring his boss tomorrow and speak to her".

I feel a complaint coming on!

The removal of the link between arrests and terraces would be a very good piece of evidence to have and from personal experiences I reckon we might prove them wrong. This would be a good response to their crowd control argunment, which at the moment we dont seem to have much evidence on, unlike the safety argunment which we seem to have stopped.

From Sussex Police:


• In the 2006/07 season there were two football-related arrests in connection with Brighton and Hove Albion home games. 1 was convicted and received a three year banning order. The other received a fixed penalty notice with no banning order. In 2007/8 season, there were 3 such arrests. 1 received a fixed penalty notice and 2 are currently going through the courts.

• In the 2007/8 season there were seven football-related arrests in connection with Crawley Town home games. 5 received cautions or were charged over section 5 Public order Act offences, one as cautions for a malicious communications offence, and 1 was cautioned for a pitch invasion offence.

• There are currently 27 people subject to banning orders in Sussex.

'malicious communications offence' = 'Ref, you f*cking c*nt'...

Gobsmacked. That's a disgrace. In fact, it's so bad it's almost funny.

You should definitely complain quoting that back at them and complain to the Information Commissioner if not satisfied.

The IC also publishes decision notices on their website - it's sometimes useful to browse any past decisions they've made.

http://www.ico.gov.uk/tools_and_resources/...on_notices.aspx

From Devon & Cornwall

Arrests for Football Offences 01/04/2006 to 31/03/2007

Data Source: Arrests filtered on Football offences & Arrest date 1st April 2006 to 31st March 2007
Offences Total
Breach of domestic football banning order 2
Football - Fail to comply with banning order 4
Football - Fail to comply with international banning order 2
Go onto playing area at designated football match 13
Total 21

Convictions Total
Conditional discharge 6
Fined 10
No Action 3
Prison Sentence 1
Reprimand 1
Total 21

Banning Orders
There was a total of 9 banning orders made with the above. One was removed on Appeal.


Arrests for Football Offences 01/04/2007 to 31/03/2008

Data Source: Arrests filtered on Football offences & arrest dates between 1st April 2007 to 31st march 2008
Offences Total
Football – Fail to comply with requirement International banning order 2
Football – Fail to comply with requirements of Football banning order 1
Total 3

Convictions Total
Cautioned 1
Fined 2
Total 3

Banning Orders
There were no banning orders made for these arrests

From Derbyshire

Question 1 –

At Pride Park – 65 arrests

At Saltergate – 46 arrests

Question 2 –

Derby - 36 Court Convictions – excludes cautions, reprimands and Fixed Penalty Notices
10 Football Banning Order issued with 29 cases pending within the Criminal Justice system.

Chesterfield 34 Court convictions and 28 Football Banning Orders

Question 3 –

At Pride Park – 93 arrests

Saltergate – 14 arrests

Question 4 –

Derby - 61 Court Convictions – excludes cautions, reprimands and Fixed Penalty Notices
33 Football Banning Order issued

Chesterfield – 14 Court convictions and 3 Football Banning Orders

From Red Issue RE the arrests at Blackburn last season

Nice

Very much higher arrest rate at Chesterfield which has 2 terraces.
I wonder what other factors are involved.
Would be interesting to compare fyear on year igures for clubs who have recently gone all seated, to see if arrests then dropped.

Also, whenever you speak to unhelpful people like this, make sure you ask for their name and the name of their manager.