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Download policing a success

Posted on 22/06/2009

arrest,villain,police,constabulary Download policing a success Ariel shot of the 13 campsites

Ariel shot of the 13 campsites

The police in North West Leicestershire say the policing operation of this year’s Download music festival at Donington Park was a success. 

The three day event, which attracted 30,000 more people than last year, passed off without major incident.  75,500 people attended on each day with 57,000 people camping across 13 campsites covering 115 acres of land.  The population of the whole of North West Leicestershire is 88,000. 

One of the biggest successes was the reduction in car crime which went from 45 offences in 2008 to just one (theft of number plate) and the reduction in tent thefts from 170 to 140 which were the two key areas of crime reduction.  There were 25,000 cars parked at Donington. 

All other areas of crime were down too except theft from person which increased from 45 to 122.  However, those numbers should reduce as people may have reported items as being stolen when they were in fact lost. Officers have start the long process of going through large quantities of recovered property including passports, banks, cards, phones and cameras trying to establish who they belong to and return them to their rightful owner.  Overall there was a small increase in crimes reported to the police (323 this year compared to 314 in 2008) however officers are pleased with the figures because the event attracted 30,000 more visitors than last year.  

The police launched a crime prevention campaign using Facebook for the first time to get crime prevention messages to rock fans across the country before they came to Donington. 

During the festival itself, teams of police community volunteers gave out crime prevention advice, encouraged people to use the on-site lockers and post coded hundreds of pieces of property which was well received by festival goers.  Officers patrolled the campsites, car parks and shopping areas throughout the day and night and a team of plain clothed officers were working throughout the event to prevent and detect crime.  24 people were arrested and 14 removed from the site. 

Students from Stephenson College designed crime prevention posters which were put up around the site reminding visitors to look after their belongings and use the camp site lockers.  The police also worked with the Drug and Alcohol Action Teams and Turning Point to use Bluetooth technology to end out crime prevention messages and remind people to be sensible with drink and drugs. 

The Bluetooth analysis shows that 4019 people picked up one of the four Bluetooth messages, 1165 people accepted it, 2854 refused, a hit rate of more than 25% (the average is 20%).  People who accept the message are encouraged to pass it on to their friends to ‘snowball’ the advice. 

The feedback from fans on the Facebook account has been very complimentary with lots of people saying how helpful officers were and now much they appreciated the work the police put into reassuring people and keeping them and their belongings safe.

Inspector Chris Brown, Commander of North West Leicestershire Local Policing Unit, said; “Anyone who has been to the festival will know that there are tens of thousands of tents pitched very close to each other over a large area covering 13 campsites.  The population at download is almost as big as the population of the whole of North West Leicestershire so to only have 323 crimes reported to us is really very good.  Our main aim was to reduce car crime and tent theft and I am delighted that crime is down in both these areas I am particularly pleased about the reduction in car crime, we didn’t have a single car stolen or broken into which is quite an achievement.  

“Theft from tents is always our biggest problem.  We encouraged people to sleep with their belongings in the bottom of their sleeping bag while they were asleep, or use the onsite lockers, and to keep their things in a zipped bag around their waists.  Despite asking people not to bring large quantities of cash with them and to leave valuable items at home many people ignored our advice and some of those may regret that now.  We have got boxes of recovered property at Coalville police station which we are in the process of sorting through and we know that many of those items will have been reported as stolen when in fact they were lost. 

“Policing an event where large numbers of people are camping presents a challenge but the atmosphere throughout the festival was great and it passed without major incident – a success for the organisers, fans and police.”