New football fan engagement event launched at Nottingham Forest

The first in a series of new engagement events designed to build trust and confidence with Nottinghamshire’s football fans will take place this weekend.

A team of six Fan Engagement Special Constables will attend Nottingham Forest’s Premier League clash with Newcastle United at the City Ground on Saturday, February 10.

Prior to kick-off, a police-branded gazebo will be positioned at the corner of the Trent and Brian Clough stands with officers available to help identify areas of concern through the Neighbourhood Priority Survey, have conversations about reducing hate crime at football matches and raise awareness of sign-ups to Notts Alerts.

The new team of special constables will be dedicated to community engagement with football fans to improve the fan experience of football policing and the club safety operation, and to promote crime prevention activity by reducing instances of hate crime at football matches.

Notts Alerts is a free community messaging service that members of the public can sign up to receive updates about problems affecting the area where they live and how they are being addressed.

Through the ‘What Matters’ Neighbourhood Priority Survey residents can directly notify Nottinghamshire Police about issues of concern in their area, which will then help inform policing strategy.

Fans are encouraged to strike up a conversation with any of the special constables, who will be patrolling the Trent end, to chat about football policing or raise any local issues for police.

Special constables, who form part of the Special Constabulary, are volunteer police officers with the same powers as regular officers and take part in frontline police work.

They can support various areas of policing including response, neighbourhoods, operations and events.

Specials Superintendent Grant White will also be based at the City Ground as a friendly and approachable face available to fans as they arrive for the match.

Nottingham Forest is supporting the new initiative to kick off the conversation with football fans to ensure communities feel safe and listened to.

This is the first of three community engagement events that will be taking place in February and March at Nottinghamshire’s two other football league clubs, Notts County and Mansfield Town.

Inspector Craig Berry said: “We want our officers to kick off conversations with football supporters to listen to their fan experience and what crime, anti-social behaviour, or vulnerability issues impact on their lives.

“It is also an opportunity to raise awareness around crime prevention and our focus at this time will be reducing hate crime at football.

“There are regular sell-out crowds at Forest, Notts County and Mansfield Town and we will be deploying our Fan Engagement Special Constables at all three grounds for the purpose of meaningful engagement to build trust and confidence with football supporter communities.” 

Graham Murray, Nottingham Forest‘s Head of Safety and Security, said: “Hate crime in all its forms has no place in football and will not be tolerated at Nottingham Forest.

“We will continue to work with our partners including Nottinghamshire Police to ensure everyone who attends the City Ground feels safe and welcome.

“An opportunity for awareness and education of hate crime can only be a positive.”