The true cost of policing football in England & Wales: Freedom of Information data from 2015-2019

Hester, Richard ORCID: 0000-0001-9008-0136 and Hobson, Jonathan ORCID: 0000-0001-8081-6699 (2022) The true cost of policing football in England & Wales: Freedom of Information data from 2015-2019. In: 22nd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, 21 - 24 September 2022, Malaga, Spain.

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Abstract

In 2019, the reported cost of policing football, according to an infographic on South Yorkshire Police’s website, was £48 million per season with £5.5 million being recovered by the police from football clubs. These figures were discussed in Parliament and deemed accurate by politicians. Chief Constable Mark Roberts, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for football policing, says police forces cannot continue to subsidise a multi-billion-pound industry. This research uses Freedom of Information requests submitted to all police forces in England and Wales, to establish the true cost of football policing. The results demonstrate that previous data is unreliable, as the actual amount recovered through Special Police Services from football clubs averaged £10 million per season between 2015 to 2019. This paper shows that police forces do not have a grasp of how much is spent on football policing, and the £48 million headline figure is likely overestimated, raising concerns about the lack of transparency over the data in the South Yorkshire Police infographic. Finally, the paper calls for further research to establish the exact cost of football policing, and consideration of more efficient methods of football policing that can help to reduce costs and prevent disorder.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Lecture)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Policing; Football
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology. > HV6001 Criminology H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology. > HV7231 Criminal justice administration > HV7551 Police. Detectives. Constabulary.
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Business, Computing and Social Sciences
Research Priority Areas:	Society and Learning
Depositing User:	Richard Hester
Date Deposited:	26 Sep 2022 13:19
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2023 08:24
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/11601

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