Crowd Control or Part of One? Pay Attention.
Hillsborough 1989
2014 is the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough football disaster when 96 fans were killed and 766 injured in a crowd crush in Sheffield, England.
Fans, most of them young, were pinned in or near the fence surrounding the field and died of compressive asphyxia.
Though it occurred in 1989, yet another inquest is underway to establish responsibility for the deaths.
It doesn’t help that the South Yorkshire Police (SYP), who were responsible for crowd control that day, have a miserable reputation generally.
If there are opposing sides at the inquest it is Liverpool families of those killed and injured versus the SYP.
SYP is alleged to have not only botched their crowd control efforts but actually created the crush by opening an exit gate allowing Liverpool fans to enter a packed standing area.
The police commander that day had no experience in such work and further refused the help of a seasoned veteran.
The charge against Liverpool fans made by SYP was that they were drunk and drinking and caused the mayhem, an assertion that has been repeatedly denied.
SYP altered reports and notebooks after the event.
A Sordid Past
England has an ugly history where football disasters are concerned.
In 1946 at Burnden Park, 33 fans were killed in a crushing incident. Perhaps in a show of that “stiff upper lip” the bodies were covered with coats, a new touchline drawn and the match re-started. (Kitchener would have been proud.)
Burnden Park
Ibrox Park in Glasgow, Scotland, has been the site of repeated disasters.
In 1902, 25 were killed when a stand collapsed and in 1971, 66 were killed in another crushing incident.
The 1971 incident occurred when a single person tripped apparently causing a chain reaction.
In 1985, 56 more were killed and hundreds injured in a stadium fire in Bradford city.
Bradford
That same year English fans charged into the terrace at the Heysel Stadium, Brussels, shortly before the European Cup Final, perhaps in an example of taking the mayhem abroad.
There was a panic among the spectators; as a result 38 people died and some 400 people were injured.
All You Need to Know: The 1924 Shortt Report
The opening day of Wembley stadium, London, on April 28, 1923, saw a minimum of 240,000 people cram into a space designed for 127,000.
Wembley 1923
Sixty-six years before the 1989 Hillsborough disaster a committee was appointed to examine the dangers of crowding at sporting events. SYP could have benefited from close study but it is still valuable reading today, 90 years later.
- Controlling crowds means controlling the arrival of people to the area of the event. This means close communication with mass transit providers including the ability to slow or stop incoming trains, etc.
- If you wait to attempt to control crowds at the venue, it is too late, by far. Measures must be taken well away from the grounds to monitor flow.
- The 2014 inquest echoes with police officer reports of being overwhelmed outside the Lepping Road gates at Hillsborough. The 1924 Shortt report recommended the use of mounted police officers who are both above the crowd where they have good visibility and very difficult to overwhelm or push past.
- Command and control is essential. A single qualified and experienced commander must be making decisions and communicating them effectively.
- Personnel need to be proactive. One parent, who lost both daughters at Hillsborough, when pleading for help, was told by a police officer, “Shut your f@#king prattle.” It’s hard not to conclude that contempt for patrons was the order of the day.
If you are controlling a crowd or part of one and you don’t see the basic elements of very good order, better to retire early than get in over your head, literally.