Paying the police

Event organisers and the police have a long history of working closely together in the planning and delivery of events, dealing with the crowds and traffic that are generated by them and ensuring that events run safely and successfully. Over time, both the events industry and the police as an organisation have undergone many changes to the ways in which they operate and what is or is not expected of them. What hasn’t changed though is the fact that events still generate crowds that need to be managed.

In the past, event organisers have been able to work with the police to assess what provision is required for the event and the police were able to play an active role in road closures, managing traffic and stewarding events, dealing with anti-social behaviour and law and order issues. This was a service that was usually supplied at no cost to the event organiser as it was considered as core business for the police.

But the world has changed, pressure has grown on resources and the focus has moved towards making efficiencies, so the police have had to reconsider their role in events, the services they should be supplying and who is benefiting from them. There is also the question of what events they can charge for and at what rate, with full cost recovery being applicable for many commercially operated events.

It is inevitable that increased policing bills have led the events industry to question the role of the police and the need for them to attend, as well as how much should be charged for their services or indeed whether a charge is applicable at all. This is where the whole issue becomes very complicated. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has issued guidance on the subject but with 43 police authorities across England and Wales, a further 8 in Scotland and others in Northern Ireland and other British islands, there is a total of 55 forces all with the right to apply the guidance in the way they consider best. This is always going to generate variation in how policing is applied to events depending on the nature of the area and the knowledge, experience and personal views of those in charge. Combine this with a wide spectrum of event types in terms of the size and nature of events, the knowledge, experience and responsibility of event organisers, and their motivation for holding their events, and it is somewhat left to chance as to what the nature of the relationship between the organiser and the police will be.

To take it a stage further, it is also important to note that the local authorities will often have an interest in events as land owner, licensing authority or both, and therefore have their own views on and influence over the matter. As there are 326 local authorities in England alone, each with the right to make decisions in their areas, it is easy to see how differences can arise.

It is really important that the events industry, local authorities and the police start to talk about ways in which we can work together to improve consistency and try to reach agreement on the roles the police should play at an event and the role of security and stewards. All parties generally are seeking the same thing – safe and well-managed events – so we need to find the best way of delivering that. To achieve this all three need to understand and trust each other, and to understand the complexities involved in delivering an event and the extent to which they can vary from one to another. Security companies play a pivotal role in these discussions too: with a good company on board it can be much easier to establish what they will take responsibility for, and what role the police will play.

The Local Authority Events Organisers Group (LAEOG), with the backing of the National Outdoor Events Association (NOEA), has behind the scenes had preliminary discussions with the police on how we go about making improvements. The administrative framework of the police and local authorities is unlikely to change, so the aim has to be training and education for everybody involved. The target has to be a situation whereby event organisers fully face up to their responsibilities in organising events and ensure that they take on competent companies to deliver their service and produce proper plans, with the police planning teams and local authority licensing officers having a good knowledge and understanding of events, how they work and what is required to deliver them. This way, a realistic and cost-effective method of managing events can be identified: if there is trust in each other’s knowledge and competency there is no reason why common ground can’t be found to suit everyone.