THE safety of police officers and their families is being put at risk by football fans who post “very dangerous” pictures of them on duty at matches on social networking websites, it has been claimed.
North Curve Celtic – which represents the supporters who occupy the safe standing section at Parkhead – posted several pictures of the officers who kettled them before the William Hill Premiership game against Rangers on Sunday on X this week.
They branded the exercise “Pig Watch” and wrote “we encourage supporters of all football teams to use similar tactics to protect themselves and keep police officers at a safe distance from them”.
The Celtic hierarchy reportedly prohibited the safe-standing section at Parkhead from unfurling tifos at games back in 2023 because they were unhappy at photographs of policemen and women inside stadiums being posted online by a small section of their fanbase.
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North Curve Celtic described it at the time as a “perfectly legal defence tactic of documenting officers perceived to be intimidating, aggravating or harassing supporters” – but they had relented until the weekend.
David Kennedy, the general secretary of the Scottish Police Federation, believes the personal safety of his organisation's members as well as their families is being jeopardised by the "very dangerous" practice.
Kennedy said, “What the fans need to understand is that these police officers are just mums and dads, brothers and sisters, like everyone else. They will be Celtic fans, Rangers fans, fans of other teams. They will have family members at the game. They are just doing their job.
“I don't think anybody wants their photograph plastered all over the internet. But if you have got people trying to identify who police officers are from the pictures of them which have been put online it can be very dangerous.
“Many of them will try to keep what their job is private. Putting pictures of them online is potentially putting them at risk and putting their families at risk as well. It is definitely a concern.
“They are just there doing their job. They're given a task to do when they go to work in the morning and they're just complying with that task. What team you support doesn't really matter to them. They are tasked by their supervisors to go and do the job they've got to do and they go and do it without fear or favour.”
Meanwhile, the special powers which Police Scotland officers were handed in a bid to prevent crowd trouble breaking out at the Edinburgh derby match at the start of this month and the Old Firm game this weekend are set to remain in force at big fixtures for the foreseeable future.
Kennedy claimed that invoking Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 had helped to prevent a repeat of the unrest which had flared in Glasgow city centre before the Premier Sports Cup final between Celtic and Rangers at Hampden back in December.
He predicted the temporary powers which officers were granted – which enable them to search anyone they believe is committing a crime, is intent on committing a crime or is in possession of a prohibited item - will continue to be used at major Scottish football matches going forward because of.
“The officers wanted to stop and search and demask people so they could see who they were. By failing to comply, they were committing an offence, which meant they could be arrested. It's pretty straightforward. If you comply and nothing is found on your person that is contravening the law then you are allowed to go on your way.
“If you go down England you will find that Section 60 is in place every virtually football match. At the end of the day, it's been put in place because of what happened with the Rangers and Celtic fans at the cup final in December. That's why it was put in play, to stop that sort of behaviour.
“Until that kind of crowd unrest stops completely, I fully expect Section 60 will be in play at every single Celtic and Rangers match, big derby match or any match which the police believe trouble can flare at.”
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Kennedy continued: “It's not something that Police Scotland want to do because of the number of officers involved. There were 850 police officers on duty at the weekend. A lot of their rest days were either cancelled or re-rostered. They are not getting paid any extra money for it. So it's not something we actually want.
“But Section 60 is a means to an end. It has to happen to curb the violence and stop the fans who are out there to cause trouble. It's there for that reason, it's there to be used. It's very common in England.
“They've done it for a reason – to ensure the safety of the members of the public. And that is what has transpired from it. There wasn't the same trouble on Sunday that there was in the city centre in December.
“The hope is that you would never have to put these measures in place and that people would just go and watch football and go home. That's ultimately what you want.”
