Policing Football Social Interaction and Negotiated Disorder Megan O’Neill Policing Football This page intentionally left blank Policing Football Social Interaction and Negotiated Disorder Megan O’Neill © Megan O’Neill 2005 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2005 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–4118–3 hardback ISBN-10: 1–4039–4118–1 hardback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data O’Neill, Megan, 1974– Policing football : social interaction and negotiated disorder / Megan O’Neill. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1–4039–4118–1 (cloth) 1. Soccer hooliganism–Great Britain–Prevention. 2. Police–Great Britain. I. Title. GV943.9.F35O54 2005 2005048571 302.3′3–dc22 10987654321 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne To the Man and the Bean This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgements ix Part I Introduction: Football, Policing and the Excitement of Mundane Sociology 3 The interpretive framework 4 Research methods 7 Overview of chapters 14 Chapter 1 Previous Research 18 Football literature 18 Policing football 32 Studies by police officers 39 Summary 42 Chapter 2 Government Reports and Football Legislation 45 Government reports 45 Football legislation in England and Wales 51 Football-related legislation in Scotland 52 Summary 53 Part II Chapter 3 Uniformed Police Constables 59 Performance: front 61 Performance: dramatic realisation and idealisation 64 Performance: maintenance of expressive control 69 Typologies the police employ 71 Rules of engagement 74 Teams 82 Regions 86 Summary 93 Chapter 4 Mobile Constables, Detectives and Football Spotters 96 Performance: Mobile Support Units 98 vii Performance: detectives 100 Typologies used by the Mobile Support Units 102 Typologies used by the detectives 105 Rules of engagement: Mobile Support Units 108 Rules of engagement: detectives 111 Teams: MSUs and detectives 114 Regions: MSUs 120 Regions: detectives 125 Summary 128 Chapter 5 Senior Officers 132 Performance 134 Typologies 136 Rules of engagement 139 Teams 143 Regions 146 Summary 150 Chapter 6 Women Police Constables 154 Previous research on WPCs 154 WPCs at football 160 The underlying police community 164 Summary 167 Chapter 7 CCTV Operators and Stewards 169 CCTV operators 170 Stewards 175 ‘Real’ police work and ‘real’ police 180 Summary 184 Part III Conclusion: The Big Implications of Small Teams 189 Implications for interaction 190 Implications for the occupational culture 194 Implications for Goffman 198 Notes 201 Bibliography 205 Index 215 viii Contents Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following for their support (in its many forms), assistance and advice during the course of this research project and book preparation: the individual police officers and staff from the main police force I studied, without whose generous co-operation this project would not have happened, and especially my two gatekeepers there; Prof. Steve Bruce, Dr. Richard Giulianotti, Prof. Peter K. Manning and Prof. Dick Hobbs for reading numerous drafts and providing thoughtful comments; Dr. Christopher Wright for an ever-open door and his uncanny ability to help me see the way through the haze of my ideas, Prof. Simon Holdaway for the precious gifts of time and publishing guidance; the other police forces and football grounds I visited during the course of this research, especially their security advisors; the private security company at the football matches; the police officers and staff at Tulliallan Police College; the Football Intelligence Section of the National Criminal Intelligence Service; the British Schools and Universities Foundation; Prof. Christopher Gane in the Law Department at Aberdeen University; Ms. Lisa Burns; Dr. Christopher Bear; the members of the Sociology Department at Aberdeen University for their unwavering and ever-ready encourage- ment; Drs Kirsty Welsh, Gwen Robinson, Victoria Gosling and Garry Crawford for listening to me rant on many, many occasions; Bill and Carol O’Neill for all their support over the years; and most importantly Boab, Jackie, Bill and Molly without whose strength I would have many times lost my own. ix [...]... would ‘wandering’ coaches full of visiting supporters get back on the path home (and not towards the city 3 4 Policing Football centre where home supporters were massing)? I observed the police perform these and many other activities before, during and after football matches, and feel that their role is far from insignificant, both operationally as well as socially This project focuses on the interaction. .. order and routine in any encounter This was especially important to establish when considering police and football supporters What could easily be assumed to be a disorderly or even chaotic situation proved to have its own underlying Introduction: Football, Policing and the Excitement of Mundane Sociology 7 structure and social order As will be discussed in later chapters, both police officers and supporters... research and legislation will be discussed in the following chapter Football literature The initial football- related academic literature focused on football hooliganism exclusively and tried to explain and thus eradicate football violence through examining issues of masculinity and class, which will be discussed first Later, football followers were studied more closely in ethnographies for a better understanding... 1999–2000 and 2000–01 seasons Scotland has a long history of addressing domestic football disorder, or ‘hooliganism’, and thus proved to be a rich location for this study Football hooligan activity seems to have developed there in the 1930s, while only in England in the mid1960s (Giulianotti 1996).2 It was a Scottish ground, Aberdeen, which was the first football stadium in the UK to become all-seated and. .. UK, especially in areas such as international crime, counterfeiting and football hooliganism I interviewed two detectives involved with its Football Intelligence Section (FIS) They showed me what role FIS plays in policing football hooliganism and how it coordinates information-sharing with the police forces in England and Wales The football intelligence officers of each police force send the information... routine part of the football landscape for that year 14 Policing Football Overview of chapters Football disorder and violence have not gone unnoticed by academics, as Chapter 1 will discuss Research began in the late 1960s and continues to this day The methods used have ranged from analysis of largely secondary material to detailed ethnographic study of the hooligans themselves and their culture What... is not to find a cure for football hooliganism nor is it intended to bring about a change in policy and legislation.5 Its impetus is a sociological one, its raison d’être to advance knowledge and add to academic debate in three main areas: the study of football 16 Policing Football hooliganism, the sociology of policing, and the continued utility of Goffman’s work in understanding contemporary life... how football supporters and hooligans tend to be viewed by those policing them Thus this chapter presents an insight into the various manifestations and interpretations of the football supporter identity As the later chapters of this book will explore in detail police identities as expressed in football policing, it is important to develop an understanding of people with whom they are interacting and. .. of investigating the eventful and unusual aspects of existence, Goffman concerns himself primarily with the ways people keep encounters with others smooth and relaxed He attempts to discover the unwritten rules of social order, Introduction: Football, Policing and the Excitement of Mundane Sociology 5 ‘the structure of face-to-face interaction, and the nuances of the interaction process’ (Birrell 1978:... developing a deeper understanding of them and our culture as a whole Football supporters have also become visible members of society and these groups encounter each other several times a week at hundreds of football grounds around the country Thus by using Goffman’s dramaturgical approach we can gain a deeper microscopic and macroscopic insight into the structure of social interaction through this aspect . Policing Football Social Interaction and Negotiated Disorder Megan O’Neill Policing Football This page intentionally left blank Policing Football Social. Megan, 1974– Policing football : social interaction and negotiated disorder / Megan O’Neill. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN