Safety concerns over pyrotechnics at Scottish football

Police Scotland told the 'BBC' that they will now "consider any tactic" to make grounds safer and will use sniffer dogs at games to detect flares and smoke bombs, said assistant chief constable Bernard Higgins.

The use of pyrotechnics (flares) is far more common north of the boarder in Scotland, in comparison to England. 

Police Scotland fear that the issue of pyrotechnics in stadiums is a ticking time bomb, with a fatality potentially around the corner. 

"These things [pyrotechnics] can burn up to 1,000 degrees," Higgins said.

"Uefa thinks pyrotechnics and organised violence are the biggest threats to football across Europe. And that's my view when it comes to the domestic game."

Higgins disputes suggestions authorities have failed to tackle the issue properly and says police cannot "arrest our way out of this situation".

 

April 27, 2018

"I think to use the word 'fail' is harsh," he said. "Safety and security at football is unrecognisable from when I first started policing matches in 1988.

"The fundamental basis is people need to take responsibility for their actions. If they bring these items in then they are putting lots of people at risk.

"Police officers don't search at turnstiles - that's for the stewards - but it may be that we need to look at that. It may be we have to do more targeted searches.

"We will also deploy our explosives dogs to walk up and down queues to give us an indication of anybody that may be carrying something they shouldn't."