Global Gathering – one of the UK’s biggest dance festivals returns to Warwickshire this year. It takes place during 29 – 31 July 2011.

Officers from Warwickshire Police are working closely with the organisers, local authorities, parish councils and residents. Our main priorities are to ensure the safety of festival goers and to minimise disruption for residents during the event.

• Crime will be dealt with robustly and positive action will be taken
• Measures will be in place to deal with a variety of issues including crime and disorder, drugs and increased traffic around the site
• Extra officers will be patrolling the site and surrounding areas
• This event is for over 18s – wristbands will be given to ticket holders once they have provided satisfactory proof of age, if required. The wristbands will be of a type that cannot be removed and transferred to other people. The Challenge 21 scheme will also be in operation on site – festival goers can expect to be asked for photographic proof of age.

Who Will Be There?

A variety of staff will be involved in the policing of the event over the weekend. These will include Police Officers, Police Community Support Officers, members of the Special Constabulary and police staff. The officers will be from across the Warwickshire policing area and are an addition to those officers who are normally on duty so as not to interfere with normal policing operations. Officers have been assigned to various roles during the weekend. Within the event officers will be carrying out a variety of tasks – including regularly patrolling the campsite to provide reassurance to campers and to deter thieves, deal with any incidents of crime and disorder and support the security staff.

Externally, officers will be involved with traffic management and policing in the local community that surrounds the site to deal with any issues that arise and to minimise any disruption to local residents.

As well as the uniformed officers on the site and in the surrounding areas there will also be dog handlers, specialist investigators, search team officers and public order officers. Where Will We Be Based?

As well as our work in the local community we will also be based on the site during the event. There will be a police station set up on the site – this will be in the event arena. The police station will be staffed by officers and will be open to festival goers who will be urged to report any incidents during the weekend.

What Will We Be Doing?

Planning one of the force’s biggest events started months ago. The team is made up of police officers and police staff from different departments around the force bringing together experience from a number of different areas.

The team is working hard behind the scenes to ensure there are robust plans in place to deal with crime and disorder, anti-social behaviour, noise and traffic issues as well as managing public safety and providing reassurance to festival goers and local residents.

As part of this planning process the team is working in partnership with the event organisers, security staff, other emergency services, local authorities, drug and alcohol support groups, local parish councils and residents.

There are many aspects of policing that have to be taken into consideration for this event.

These include:

• Community policing
• Traffic management
• Drug drive testing
• Drugs liaison officers
• Search officers
• Specialist dog handlers
• Arena patrol officers
• Campsite patrol officers
• Public order officers
• Detective Investigators
• On-site Police Station staff

Officers will also be assisting security staff on site. They will be patrolling all parts of the site to offer reassurance to ticket holders, to deter crime and disorder and to ensure everyone has a chance to enjoy themselves. They will also be dealing with any incidents and helping the event organisers in the event of a major incident.