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 Policing Arrangements

At the 1988 semi-final, policing had been under the control of Chief Superintendent Mole, then Commander of F Division within whose area Hillsborough lies. He was still in post on 20 March 1989 when the FA broached the 1989 semi-final, but he was due to hand over command of F Division on 27 March to Superintendent Duckenfield on the latter's promotion to Chief Superintendent. Both were present at an initial meeting on 22 March, but on 27 March Mr Mole bowed out and Mr Duckenfield took over. Under him were Sector Commanders, all Superintendents with much experience of policing football matches at Hillsborough and elsewhere. In particular, Superintendent Marshall was in charge of the area outside the Leppings Lane entrance and the approaches to it. Superintendent Greenwood was in command inside the ground, but this included the area between the turnstiles and the perimeter fence. They thereby swapped roles from the previous year. Under Mr Duckenfield's overall command were some 801 officers and men on duty at the ground plus traffic officers and others from D Division to deal with the influx of supporters into the city centre. In all, therefore, some 1,122 police were deployed for this match amounting to about 38 per cent of the total South Yorkshire force. Included in the mounted section of 34 were officers from Liverpool and Nottingham to assist respectively in marshalling their home supporters. The total at the ground was divided into serials consisting usually of eight to ten Constables plus a Sergeant and an Inspector. The serials were posted to duties at various stations in and around the ground in three phases: before, during and after the match. All of this was provided for in an Operational Order which followed closely the Order drawn up for the 1988 semi-final and took into account the force's "Standing Instructions for the Policing of Football Grounds". The Order described the duties of each serial at each phase. It was supplemented by oral briefings before and on the day of the match.

Sheffield Wednesday's Arrangements

The Club provided 376 stewards, gatemen and turnstile operators for duty on 15 April. The stewards were briefed as to their duties on the morning of the match by police Inspectors and were allocated round the ground. They wore yellow tabards. The Club's control room, situated below the south stand, could communicate by VHF radio with the stewards. Closed circuit television was installed by the Club with screens in their control room showing all the turnstiles round the ground. A computerised counting system was incorporated in the turnstiles. This flashed onto a screen in the Club control room the running total of spectators passing through the turnstiles section by section. Thus, at the Leppings Lane end, there would be separate running totals for turnstiles 1 to 10 (north stand), turnstiles 11 to 16 (west stand), and turnstiles A to G (west terraces). When the total for any section was within 15 per cent of its permitted capacity a warning pulse showed on the screen. For the west terracing that warning would occur when the numbers were within 15 per cent of the total terrace capacity of 10,100. What the system could not do was monitor the distribution of fans on the terracing, pen by pen. It could give no warning therefore if one pen was full beyond its safe capacity.

Police Communications

The nerve centre for police control is the control room or box situated at the south-west corner of the ground between the south stand and pen 1 of the west terracing. The box is elevated and reached by a number of steps. It has windows commanding views across the pitch and straight along the line of the west perimeter fence. The box is very small and has seats for only three officers. Superintendent Murray was in control of it and was advisor to Mr Duckenfield as he had been to Mr Mole the year before. Next to him sat Sergeant Goddard who operated the radios. The third seat was for Police Constable Ryan who operated the telephone and public address systems. At the back of the box stood Police Constable Bichard who was in control of the police closed circuit television system operated by a row of consoles on a bench in front of him and behind the three seated officers.

There were five television screens showing views of five roving cameras fixed at high points on the stands and directed both inside and outside the ground. There was also a master screen which flicked in rotation from one camera view to another and which made a video recording. The cameras have a zoom facility to close in on any point of interest. Specifically, there were good camera views of the west terracing, of the Leppings Lane turnstiles and beyond them of Leppings Lane itself.

The Tannoy public address system was relayed through speakers fixed at vantage points inside the ground and outside the turnstiles. It was used by a disc jockey, housed under the police control box, to relay music before the match, but it could be overridden by the police. Messages could be relayed through all speakers or if appropriate to one area only. Rh