Two out of every three adults want improved safety in stadiums and arenas after recent national publicity around the safety of women and girls, a YouGov survey has found.
With safety defined as ‘where efforts have been made to prevent crime, reduce harm and where staff will support you if you are feeling vulnerable’, 5,050 adults in England aged 18 to 45, were asked whether they agreed with the statement that ‘recent publicity around the safety of women and girls has made it more important for licensed premises to improve their safety procedures’.
In response, the greatest calls for safety improvements were in nightclubs (79pc), bars and pubs (76pc) and stadiums and arenas at 65pc. Calls for safety improvements in other licensed premises included in the survey were hotels and guest houses (64pc), sports and social clubs (62pc), restaurants (58pc) and theatres (52pc). Across all licensed premises in the survey the calls for improved safety were largest from women – with stadiums and arenas coming out at 71pc for women and 60pc for men.
The survey was carried out between 16 August and 5 September 2021. It found that adults feel significantly less safe across all types of licensed premises included in the survey than they did before the first national lockdown in March 2020. For example, the largest falls in feeling safe were in nightclubs – down 33 percentage points from 81pc pre-pandemic to 48pc today; bars and clubs down 29 percentage points from 93pc to 64pc and stadiums and arenas down 27 percentage points from 92pc to 65pc.
As for what safety features influences the perceived safety of stadiums and arenas upon arrival first comes ‘door entry control’ with 50pc of respondents choosing this option. Next in order are uniformed staff at 49pc; clearly marked fire exits and staff controlling rowdy crowds, both 45pc; and the venue being well-lit 44pc. The poll was commissioned by Police Crime Prevention Initiatives (Police CPI), a police-owned company, which works on such crime reduction schemes as Secured by Design. One of Police CPI’s latest is Licensing Security & Vulnerability Initiative (Licensing SAVI), for licensed premises.
The November print edition of Professional Security featured the training exercise at The Cuckoo Club in London’s West End, pictured, taking door security and other club staff through such scenarios as a knife assault, acid attack (‘corrosive substance’) and marauding terrorists outside.
Mark Morgan, Business Manager for Licensing SAVI, is a former police superintendent. He said: “There is a tremendous consistency in these results which show how important safety in licensed premises has become today for men and women – but particularly women.
“In my experience there is some excellent work across the country in terms of safety at stadiums and arenas, with it being really important to ensure staff at all levels are reminded of basic measures they can undertake to enhance safety and, as the survey indicates, provide that reassurance to customers in order to increase their perception of safety.
“Use of Licensing SAVI raises awareness of wider issues from a customers’ perspective and particularly reinforces key issues such as counter terrorism considerations in crowded places.”
He added that venue safety and security is especially important now that the UK terrorism threat level has been raised to ‘severe’ after the suspected suicide bomb attempt outside Liverpool Women’s Hospital on Remembrance Sunday, November 14. Raising the threat level from ‘substantial’ to ‘severe’ is the difference between an attack being’ likely’ to being ‘highly likely’, he said.
