The concourses are silent when, deep in the Emirates Stadium’s bowels, Chief Inspector Pete Dearden’s briefing begins. Arsenal’s 4.30pm kick-off against Chelsea is still hours away but the fixture carries significance as a London derby and because the Premier League champions are hosting a realistic challenger. Dearden is a senior officer in the Metropolitan police’s public order command and Sunday’s matchday commander.
He is, to borrow football jargon, giving the pre-match team talk, running through intelligence and in-game tactics. After Dearden has finished, the police room becomes a pseudo-station for the afternoon, with all incidents triaged by the same crime officer. Football offences can be found in niche legislation, and the Met wants London’s matchdays to be, so far as possible, policed uniformly.
Matchday is the iceberg’s tip. The Met’s 17 dedicated football officers (DFOs) each work full-time on one club, planning each fixture with the matchday commander. All 500-plus games the Met covers per season are risk-graded using factors such as risk level of supporters, proximity, recent history and kick‑off time.
Dearden labels Sunday’s game “medium medium”. In addition, there are the senior team and 20 operational football officers, or “spotters”, on duty. Clubs also have their own in-house safety teams, with, in effect, both parties doing their homework before collaborating.
Arsenal’s operation involves about 1,000 stewards and response team members. They are the first responders to any incidents within Arsenal’s footprint. When a Chelsea fan overzealously reacts to his team’s early lead, the response team remove him.
Stadiums are not policed as standard, but clubs can request (and, if the request is accepted, pay for) special police services (SPS). Arsenal asked for one PSU to work within the Emirates for Chelsea’s visit but even then, police intervene only when required. Dearden estimates policing football costs the Met £23m a season, with approximately 10% recovered from clubs for SPS.
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