Four police officers from Belgium and Germany joined Leicestershire Police at the Download Rock Festival this month to identify travelling pickpockets and mobile phone thieves.
Gangs of pick pockets are known to ‘go on tour’ following big name rock bands and stealing from their fans. They buy tickets legitimately but steal in crowded venues and prey on the fact that campers leave valuable items in their tents which aren’t secure.
The EU policing agency Europol is supporting anti-pickpocket police from EU member states known as, ‘Operational Festival.’ DC Kevin Walker from Leicestershire Police has set up a UK-wide unit known as Operation Gothic to co-ordinate the UK response to festival crime. He invited officers from Operation Festival to Download – a heavy metal festival held a Donington Park in Leicestershire. The team of four, pictured, arrived on Thursday, June 9 and flew home on the Saturday.
DC Walker said; “It’s been wonderful to welcome officers from Op Festival here at Download and we’ve learnt a great deal from each other about techniques used to spot travelling gangs and deal with them before they target events. I am pleased to say crime at Download has been exceptionally low this year and we believe the gangs have stayed away. The crime prevention plan at Download is very robust, and well publicised, and we work very closely with the organisers, Festival Republic, who take the security of festival goers seriously.
“We’ve also been using automatic number plate recognition technology (ANPR) on all the main roads surrounding Donington and officers have been pulling cars over before they get to the site and that will have deterred gangs from targeting the event.”
Meanwhile the stewarding and event security contractor Showsec has released a time lapse film at Download, which was collated from images taken over a two-hour period: view at https://youtu.be/etSWFXAgGbg.
The contractor worked besides Download, on the same weekend and Parklife Weekender in Manchester; and the Patron’s Lunch in London and the World Triathlon Series in Leeds. Logistics supports staff; 750 deployed for Download alone.
Richard Watkins, Showsec’s Head of Projects, Planning and Logistics, said: “We’re there to provide a one-stop shop for our workforce’s needs to gear them up for undertaking their duties at the event, the sort of essential items they often require when away from the things they take for granted while at home.
“That all begins with the process of getting staff on site, accredited and deployed on time, which is a mammoth task in itself. However, it’s always completed within the timeframe as we tailor our operation for the level of staff coming in.
“There are so many other elements to our role too in providing that go-to area. Logistics is a place they will come to for lunch, dinner or a hot beverage, as well as a whole variety of other things which, in the case of Download and Parklife over that particularly tough weekend, largely revolved around the battle with the weather.
“There wasn’t too much demand for sun cream, so it was distributing large numbers of ponchos and offering advice on how to get clothes dried. We offer a steady supply of bottled water, but hot drinks were more the order of the day.
“While the team operating on the frontline is very visible to the public, there is often a dedicated team working away behind the scenes to support the management team and staff in their endeavours to achieve the highest standards of service.”
Ten members of the Logistics team were on duty at Download, while a further 15 staff were assigned to that role at Parklife and, in both cases, they were needed more than ever due to the difficult conditions caused by bad weather. The fact that the weather can have such a big impact on Logistics’ role means that they have to be prepared for all eventualities on site. That planning begins at an early stage, which in the case of Download was around Christmas time, almost six months before the event.
For more from Showsec at Download visit http://www.showsec.co.uk/news/first-impressions-count-at-download-festival.
