A dedicated gallery has been introduced on ECINS to manage issues including Violence, Disorder, Disruption, and Damage perpetrated by spectators at football sporting events.

These are termed as ‘risk supporters’ – the College of Policing definition of a risk supporter is: a person, known or not, who can be regarded as posing a possible risk to public order or antisocial behaviour, whether planned or spontaneous, at or in connection with a football event

Dedicated Football Officers, Nick Paul and Nick Price are responsible for this area of work across Northamptonshire, using the system for tracking and updating subjects of interest who follow Northampton Town FC (NTFC) and are classed as ‘risk’ supporters. These individuals are suspected of being involved with ASB & disorder at both home and away fixtures involving NTFC and possibly the England National side.

The Football Spotting Team is currently working in partnership with local Safer Community Teams (SCT) based in Northants & NTFC and the national network of Dedicated Football Officers [DFO] assigned to each of the 92 clubs in the Premiership, Championship and Leagues 1 & 2.

A key reason for using ECINS for managing football ‘risk supporters’ is due to its ability to share information with other interested parties. The aim for Northamptonshire is to use the system in a similar way to how the police and probation teams use it for IOM to improve their recording of information and enhance partnership working and interventions.

A prime objective for the team is to sign up all five of the football clubs that operate within Northamptonshire, including NTFC, Kettering Town, Rushden and Diamonds, Corby Town and Brackley Town so that they are able to keep each other up to date and share information with the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit. This would enable all parties to improve the Police And Clubs Together (PACT) Scheme by accessing profile information, monitor progress and work together to put interventions in place earlier.

By using the wider ECINS family in this way the Football Spotting Team would be able to access information about recent matches much quicker and be more proactive in their approaches to handling incidents.

A further, long term objective is to encourage other DFOs nationally to use ECINS in order to share information about ‘risk’ groups and associations and links across the country to support the DFO when researching and planning for football fixtures.