National digital body taps specialist supplier to probe possibilities of using technology to bring greater ‘precision’ to intelligence, as well as delivering better value for money in operations at matches

The Police Digital Service has brought in consultants to help explore how digital and data could help bring more rigour to current “analogue” methods of policing football matches.

On 12 January, the national specialist tech organisation – which is owned by and works on behalf of police forces across England, Wales and Northern Ireland – entered into a six-month agreement with Bays Consulting: a data analytics company with a particular focus on crowd modelling.

A newly published commercial notice reveals that, in the coming weeks and months, the firm will help the Police Digital Service (PDS) experiment with potential ways in which forces could enable and implement “data-driven planning in football policing”. This approach would differ significantly from current models that, in large part, rely on officers’ judgement.

“The policing approach to the operational running of football events remains largely analogue, relying heavily on traditional intelligence assessments and risk categorisation to inform match planning, resource allocation and costs,” the notice says. “This approach is widely utilised and relies heavily on the match commander assigned to the policing operation, their planning teams using an analogue risk management matrix along with their skills and experience to inform their judgement of the level of risk that each football match presents. This generic approach, however, presents a margin of risk, owing to the historically manual interpretation of the available intelligence, which can therefore lack the precision and adaptability offered by modern data-driven solutions.”

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As well as the potential for delivering improved intelligence on risks, making better use of data could also make football operations more efficient – and potentially lower costs to taxpayers.

“Policing seeks to provide more efficient processes to lessen the impact on resourcing and costs and to therefore ensure that the service offered to the public is as cost effective as it can be”, the commercial document adds. “Being able to be more specific with resourcing both inside and outside the football ground will impact costs for policing. There is also increased concern about officer wellbeing, and how to stretch resourcing to meet demand, precious rest periods often need to be interrupted impacting on the officers’ welfare.”

The engagement between Bays and PDS runs until the midpoint of 2026 and is valued at £600,000.

PDS was established as the Police ICT Company in 2012. Its remit is to help coordinate the purchase and deployment of technology across the sector. It is funded by the Home Office and the 43 forces that jointly own the organisation, encompassing: the 43 local and regional police forces across England and Wales; the Police Service of Northern Ireland; the National Crime Agency; British Transport Police; the College of Policing, and the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime.

PDS is set to be subsumed into a newly created National Police Service, proposals in a recently released Home Office whitepaper revealed.