CCTV Surveillance: Crowd Control for Sports Grounds

Following recent events in the Premier League, and according to many reports, there has been an increase in crime from supporters in and around football stadiums over the last few months.

This article sets out to explain the issues that can be caused by a lack of crowd control at sporting grounds, as well as how CCTV surveillance can massively improve the level of stadium/ground security and the safety of players and fans.

Crowd Control Issues

Recent months in the Premier League are certainly not to be remembered for the respect of the fans at the stadium and the lack of disorder amongst supporters. There have been many incidents of players being struck by objects thrown from the crowd and clashes with the police. For instance, a few Aston Villa players had been hit by plastic bottles during their match against Everton recently, Antonio Rudiger was struck by a lighter in the London derby between Chelsea and Tottenham and numerous clashes with the police happened at the end of the match between Manchester United and West Ham.

Thankfully, justice was served through the use of CCTV surveillance that helped identify the offenders who were later arrested and banned from the stadiums.

CCTV Systems for Sports Grounds

Unfortunately, these unwanted events in stadiums or in areas around the UK are not isolated events. According to the University of Manchester Professor, Geoff Pearson, one of the most influential persons in the UK about football disorders, said: “the latest data seems to indicate a possible national trend”. This phenomenon does not just take place in the Premier League or big events (Euro Final Cup at Wembley). Recent research shows that the biggest increase, 56%, in reported incidents of disorder, is in the fifth tier English Football League, the National League. This could be due to clubs in the lower leagues not having the staff and security tools at their disposal that the top-level leagues do. However, the introduction of CCTV systems within lower league clubs and stadiums would almost definitely lead to better control of areas in and around sports grounds, reducing and perhaps defeating the rising issue of crowd control. Indeed, CCTV systems have helped to identify the fans involved in these disorders in the Premier League, allowing these people to receive the right punishment.

Tensor's CCTV systems provide the highest performance in the security industry with the confidence that customers are getting the most reliable system on the market. As demonstrated in the past, Tensor has a huge experience in installing CCTV surveillance across a wide range of sectors, sports grounds included. Furthermore, you can choose to integrate your CCTV surveillance with other security systems such as Access Control, Facial Recognition systems and Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR).

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR)

Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), through the use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, instantly identifies a vehicle’s number plate in order to grant or deny access to a site. Integrated with an Access Control system, ANPR allows any business or sports ground to drastically improve security and streamline vehicle access on site.

Gates, Barriers & Turnstiles for Sports Grounds

In addition to our range of CCTV systems, we also provide gates, barriers and turnstiles as an access control measure to ensure fans can get in and out of stadiums quickly and safely, as well as ensuring that only authorised fans who have paid are able to enter the stadium. The value of these products is clearly recognisable from the fact that they guarantee impeccable performance, with strict safety standards, even in extreme weather conditions.

If you would like more information on any of our Access Control systems to help install better crowd control within your sports ground, then please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of our sales team today who will be happy to help.