Police presence today……

Jesus Christ!!! What’s that cost charlton today??? Seemed absolutely way over kill……..riot vans, horses, coppers even stood in some sort of military style order on a side street……don’t get it at all, in the 5/6 times I’ve been here I’ve not seen any trouble once, todays presence seemed very bizarre, even more so when crime is through the roof these days……you can’t get a Bobby to attend a burglary but stick a game of football into the mix and there’s an endless amount of police, a really didn’t get today

 

Obviously your reputation went before you.

 

It's them five o', there a scary bunch.

 

It did seem excessive. The police in the side street was amongst the most bizarre things I've ever seen at a match, all stood in a pattern, unless it was an exercise it was very odd.

We have had bits of trouble with stewards te last two visits but certainly not disorder of note warranting today's turn out. The horses leading from the ground were largely redundant too. Huge over kill.

There's never a shortage of police officers for football though. The resource to arrest figures must be mind boggling.

 

It was to stop you all leaving at half time

 

Thought the same thing myself. Especially the tightly packed phalanx of coppers near the station. They should get them horses out doing some proper policing investigating burglaries.

 

It was to arrest anyone taking the piss out of home fans wrongly pronouncing their team name as Cholton.

 

I’ve never seen out like it……..the rue must’ve been at least 100+ police and that stadium

 

I remember going when my lads were kids on the coach , it got lost and parked up the wrong side of the Stadium . We had to go under a flyover and a back street to get to the away entrance , basically it was old blokes and families running to get their before kick off and the Police at the end of the street drew their truncheons, everyone was laughing , it was a bizarre site particularly when the Inspector dropped his walkie talkie and his hat fell off

 

Just been discussing that wedge of unsmiling coppers next to the station. What was that all abart? I’d have asked them but honestly they didn’t look up for a chat. Beast of a lady copper at the business end of the wedge. Scary

 

Still stuck in 1984

 

Met Coppers recapturing the spirit of 84/85. In practice for the predicted violence to be perpetrated by the NHS striking nurses and doctors.
It really was a bizarre scene.
As for the stewarding. I defended those at Charlton last time. But although not involved. 1 or 2 from the way they were acting were nobs. Over officious when totally unnecessary. Vast majority sensible approaches.

 

Catering staff must’ve had same pre match talk then in how not to smile,
‘Can I have a pie please’
Nod
‘Can I pay cash’
Shake of head
‘Have you got some brown sauce’
Shake of head

Cheers pal………..

 

I was gong to ask the gaggle by the station but bottled it. They didn't look like they wanted to be spoken to.

 

The reason you sometimes see so many police at matches is due to the ‘agreement’ made before the season starts. A meeting between the club and police categorise the status A,B or C. The police have the final word. The club pays for the policing on a match day. They should only pay for the policing within the curtilage of the stadium. If you factor in how under funded and under resourced the police are there must be a temptation to up a match category to increase revenue. There has also been instances in the past, first exposed by Ipswich, where the police have included the cost of policing outside the ground. I think the situation many years ago at Ipswich there has been less instances of over charging. The cost of policing outside the stadium is down to the police. Inside it is down to the club. I’m not sure why there were so many police at Charlton. Maybe because the recent behaviour of our fans has increased the categorisation when we are at away fixtures.

 

A don’t particularly miss many aways n yeah there is some warm un’s attend, other than a bit of handbags at Ipswich I ain’t seen any street violence this season unless I’ve glaringly missed something

 

I watched in the press around 10 years ago that Wigan Athletic fought a high court battle with the police about who pays for what. The Court decided outside the immediate curtilage of the ground its the police. Not sure if that has led to some perverse practice of over-policing the curtilage to cover beyond that. They had three categories of matches and each had a set response to each from A to C. I imagine the apparent overkill may be because of issues with stewards (who will doubtless call for police backup) last time we were there. If Forest Green is a C and Millwall an A, I'd imagine we were a B last time. We get elevated from say a B to an A with the accompanying set response. It's also possible they had some spurious intel about clubs with effectively no game getting involved, eg Leeds and Millwall

BTW respect to the person who got "Phalanx" into a post. Never thought I'd see that in context on a fan forum (it originally was a well-drilled troop of roman centurions)