Police discretion and the role of the ‘spotter’ within football crowd policing: risk assessment, engagement, legitimacy and de-escalation
Police discretion and the role of the ‘spotter’ within football crowd policing: risk assessment, engagement, legitimacy and de-escalation
Discretion is a key feature of policing, yet its surrounding research has historically been heavily reliant upon exploring interpersonal or dyadic encounters between individual officers and members of the public. More recently, studies have explored how discretionary decisions by police officers impact upon and interact with group-level and organisational processes but few studies have explored the relevance of discretion to debates in the literature on public order policing. Correspondingly, there is to date only a limited body of research exploring the nature and dynamics of dialogue-based football-related public order policing. This study addresses these combined gaps by drawing upon data from interviews with specialist football officers, referred to as ‘spotters’ or Dedicated Football Officers, from five English police forces. Our analysis critiques the idea that these specialist roles revolve merely around the surveillance, categorisation and enforcement of fans who are considered to pose a risk to public order. We highlight how these officers understand their roles in terms of the use of discretion. We argue that in a complex intergroup environment officers utilise discretion to manage perceptions of their legitimacy among supporters. This ‘social capital’ in turn enhances their capacity to de-escalate and avoid disorder through the promotion of self-regulatory behaviour. We discuss the relevance of our study for theoretical approaches to understanding discretion and consider the implications of our analysis for developing a more formal dialogue-focused and discretion-based approach to football crowd policing in and beyond England and Wales.
Dialogue, discretion, football spotter, public order
485-500
Hope, Michael Alan
5325717e-1dc2-4239-b242-ff3a3b420ec0
Radburn, Matthew
8f15d823-802f-4a89-a78b-5b45ead10c13
Stott, Clifford
de644ef9-4e04-4368-a0e2-67a6d97d0f53
28 May 2023
Hope, Michael Alan
5325717e-1dc2-4239-b242-ff3a3b420ec0
Radburn, Matthew
8f15d823-802f-4a89-a78b-5b45ead10c13
Stott, Clifford
de644ef9-4e04-4368-a0e2-67a6d97d0f53
Hope, Michael Alan, Radburn, Matthew and Stott, Clifford
(2023)
Police discretion and the role of the ‘spotter’ within football crowd policing: risk assessment, engagement, legitimacy and de-escalation.
Policing and Society, 33 (5), .
(doi:10.1080/10439463.2023.2173193).
Abstract
Discretion is a key feature of policing, yet its surrounding research has historically been heavily reliant upon exploring interpersonal or dyadic encounters between individual officers and members of the public. More recently, studies have explored how discretionary decisions by police officers impact upon and interact with group-level and organisational processes but few studies have explored the relevance of discretion to debates in the literature on public order policing. Correspondingly, there is to date only a limited body of research exploring the nature and dynamics of dialogue-based football-related public order policing. This study addresses these combined gaps by drawing upon data from interviews with specialist football officers, referred to as ‘spotters’ or Dedicated Football Officers, from five English police forces. Our analysis critiques the idea that these specialist roles revolve merely around the surveillance, categorisation and enforcement of fans who are considered to pose a risk to public order. We highlight how these officers understand their roles in terms of the use of discretion. We argue that in a complex intergroup environment officers utilise discretion to manage perceptions of their legitimacy among supporters. This ‘social capital’ in turn enhances their capacity to de-escalate and avoid disorder through the promotion of self-regulatory behaviour. We discuss the relevance of our study for theoretical approaches to understanding discretion and consider the implications of our analysis for developing a more formal dialogue-focused and discretion-based approach to football crowd policing in and beyond England and Wales.
Text
Police discretion and the role of the spotter within football crowd policing risk assessment engagement legitimacy and de escalation
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 23 January 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 7 February 2023
Published date: 28 May 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
Researchers have questioned the proportionality of FBOs as well as their effectiveness in reducing disorder (e.g. Stott and Pearson , Hopkins and Hamilton-Smith , James and Pearson ). Nonetheless, police forces receive funding from the Home Office via the national coordinating body for football policing, the UKFPU, for securing FBOs. Hopkins () discusses how this funding model can create a target-driven culture whereby FBOs may be sought not merely to prevent threat and risk but to sustain revenue. Although subsequent research by Hester () found some evidence to suggest funding was a driver for FBOs, he argues DFOs and spotters are generally adopting a more preventative approach by seeking funding for initiatives such as youth diversion projects.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords:
Dialogue, discretion, football spotter, public order
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 475776
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/475776
ISSN: 1043-9463
PURE UUID: 5975a942-cd8b-4ed7-b8e0-95a0e4f45e1d
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Date deposited: 28 Mar 2023 16:41
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:01
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Author:
Michael Alan Hope
Author:
Matthew Radburn
Author:
Clifford Stott
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