Page:Hillsborough Taylor Interim Report Cm765.pdf/40

 or in the west stand should keep watch for any possible overcrowding on the terraces. Indeed, the view was expressed in evidence that packing fans close together on the terraces assisted in controlling the unruly since the less room they had the less scope there was for misbehaviour.

Summary

Although the police had accepted defacto responsibility for monitoring the pens, their policy on the day was to leave fans to "find their own level" and to concentrate their own attention on possible disorder. Whilst in theory the police would intervene if a pen became "full", in practice they permitted the test of fullness to be what the fans would tolerate.

By 2.52 pm when gate C was opened, pens 3 and 4 were over-full even by this test. Many were uncomfortable. To allow any more into those pens was likely to cause injuries; to allow in a large stream was courting disaster. Rh