Tue, 2009-10-20

On Saturday outside of the Southampton Rangers Sports Club there was an incident that once again put the safety at our sporting events or specifically at football games back into the spotlight. A football game took place with Boulevard Blazers Football Club’s development team and Southampton Rangers Sports Club’s development team at 1 p.m. at Southampton Rangers Sports Club. At the end of the match players from the Boulevard team were reportedly getting into a taxi when several unknown males attacked the vehicle using projectiles and other objects. Police were called and upon our arrival it was ascertained that the taxi had already left and the suspects had also made good their escape. Police kept a high visibility presence in the area and one person was arrested as a result of a warrant check.

I would like to take this opportunity to clarify some points that have been unclear thus far in the media. Firstly, the Bermuda Police Service (BPS) has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Bermuda Football Association (BFA) where all games deemed to be high risk will be brought to the attention of the BPS thus giving us an opportunity to respond with the appropriate Police resources. This game unfortunately was not brought to the attention of the Bermuda Police Service. We have spoken to the management of the Club and they have indicated that the Police were not contacted as was reported in the media. The Southampton Rangers Sports Club is one of the areas we have specifically identified as a “hot spot” area and units are detailed to attend this location at regular intervals daily; this is in conjunction to any other visits that take place by our Police Support Unit (PSU).

To get a clear perspective of the situation on the weekend, you must be aware that the BFA has over 25 games on an average weekend. This includes women’s games, the commercial league, first division, premiership and youth developmentplayers and spectators likely to be at these games. league. It would be impossible for Police to be at every game as we do not have infinite resources; thus a threat assessment must be done to assess how best to deploy our resources. On this particular weekend, the BPS had a high visibility presence at a number of games based on the information we had about players and spectators likely to be at these games.

Where Police are given sufficient information about games and the potential for anti-social behaviour, we deploy our resources accordingly. It is important to note Police received specific information that there would be retaliatory attacks in the Southampton area; therefore there was a high visibility presence in the area to prevent any further antisocial behaviour and as a result, two individuals were arrested. Through our policing efforts, the rest of the weekend was relatively safe with highly visible patrols by both regular patrols as well as a full compliment of PSU.

The violence that we have seen at our sporting events is a representation of critical social ills that are affecting our community as a whole and it is unfair to simply drop the ball at the feet of the BFA and to blame the Bermuda Police Service. We must first get all the facts and then liaise with all the relevant stakeholders to get a positive outcome. I believe that the Government, the Police and our community partners such as the BFA must work together to deal with the issue of violence in our community. It is counterproductive for individuals to attack the Bermuda Police Service and the BFA without having all the facts or understanding the critical issues that exist when policing these social environments. Comments made without a full appreciation of the facts can have the unintended consequence of reducing public attendance at games because of a general assumption that they are unsafe when that is not the case.

It is my pledge to the people of Bermuda and to the island’s sporting bodies that we are committed to preserving the quality of life they have come to know and expect. We have a Police officer working directly with the BFA to make sure all issues are brought to the attention of the BPS. We will reengage the BFA with a view to identifying high risk venues, high risk situations and high risk relationships so that they can be properly resourced.

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