Yesterday, we made contact with the football office at Chesterfield police station. We spoke to one of their football liaison officers, PC Turner, who told us the following.
Following some intelligence information, Chesterfield police were led to understand to expect some trouble, from sections of both Chesterfield and QPR fans. Their Chief Inspector made the decision to implement the section 60 act on away fans arriving in the town, thus giving them the power to stop and search supporters.
This decision was also taken because apparently traveling QPR fans have gained a reputation over recent years, he cited the stabbing of a steward a while back at an away game featuring QPR.
When we pointed out that we have received many letters from aggrieved supporters who are genuine, law abiding citizens, who have never been involved in any kind of trouble before, the PC told us how it was hard for the police to differentiate sometimes between those who are genuine, and those who are not, and how on carrying out the filming and searching of fans, some items were found on individuals and that knives were seized.
We reiterated that many genuine people had been caught up in the filming and searching, and how they found the entire episode frustrating and embarrassing, he said how it was unfortunate but the steps they took were to ensure that if any trouble erupted afterwards, then due to the CCTV earlier on, with all relevant details of those having been stopped, filmed and searched having been put on file at the station, it would have provided evidential value.
We raised the concerns of how some of the fans who had contacted us were worried about their details being kept on some kind of register. He informed us that the film was kept there at the station for a day, again going back to how if trouble erupted the film would have helped immensely as regards identification. Yet when we queried him about names and DOB’s being kept on file, he told us how they are kept in a box file at the station for a year. When probed further about the reason for this he insisted that it was in case anyone who had been filmed, stopped and searched, wished to request a copy of their own file which includes all details given on the day i.e. the search, time, day, name, DOB. He did say though that none of these details are passed onto any second party.
He insisted that section 60’s are used frequently, citing their game at Southend last season when Chesterfield fans were stopped and searched. He also informed us that if QPR visit Chesterfield again, then the police would more than likely implement this measure again. And we expressed surprise after his revelation that Chesterfield FC do have a very large hooligan group.
QPR 1st will now be sending all letters we received about this matter onto the Chief Inspector at Chesterfield to ask her to put their side of the story down in writing. As soon as we get a reply we will let everyone know. In the meantime we will be contacting our local football liaison unit again, and the club, asking for their thoughts on this matter.