How Football Stadiums Can Prepare For Martyn’s Law

Martyn’s Law, which seeks to improve the security of public venues and spaces, will begin its ascension into UK law in May. The majority of football stadiums can expect to fall into the ‘enhanced’ tier of the regulation and must adopt measures proportional to the size of their security operation. Steve Green, Business Development Manager at Genetec discusses how football stadiums can best prepare for the upcoming changes.

Martyn’s Law seeks to better protect staff and visitors by improving security measures and organisation preparedness in the event of a terrorist attack. It follows the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing that left 21 dead and aims to ensure lessons learned are adopted across public venues and spaces as whole.

The very first thing to note is that the specifics of Martyn’s Law have yet to be determined and are subject to change. Organisations should therefore be very wary of consultants claiming to be able to come in now to implement actions to guarantee compliance with the new regulation. That said, we do know it will be guided by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office's guidance on Publicly Accessible Locations, which provides a comprehensive strategy for incident prevention and response, including the use of CCTV, access control, and hostile vehicle identification. The guidance also emphasises the importance of instilling a security culture in all personnel, which will be made much simpler with the right supporting technologies in place.

For many football stadium managers, the cost of these changes will be a major concern. Upgrading security systems or increasing staff with broader training can add to the financial burden, especially given the ongoing inflation throughout the UK. Moreover, given that terrorism attack methods are constantly evolving, stadium security strategies must possess the flexibility needed to adapt accordingly.

By embracing these changes early, stadiums can spread the cost of any required upgrades over several years to help manage costs. Such a change also presents a golden opportunity for assessing existing security measures, considering if existing technologies and systems can adapt alongside the UK’s ever‑evolving anti‑terror legislation.

Adopting a technology-driven approach to security, with a focus on visualising all relevant data through a single interface, is one of the most important steps to take. This will simplify not only security personnel training but also incident response times and procedures. Technology can also help to reinforce standard operating procedures. Digitizing these procedures and developing guided workflows will make them easier to follow in the event of a crisis. This will also make it easier to comply with the law's requirement to aid police investigations.

The need to update our security technologies also extends to hardware and digital storage. It's 2023, it is high time we reconsider the process of gathering video evidence. While manual methods such as sharing footage on USB sticks or DVDs were once sufficient, the cloud now provides much more secure and efficient options for storing and accessing digital evidence.

With the new era of anti-terror operations in full swing, football stadium management should take proactive measures to ensure they are in the best possible position to comply with Martyn's Law. This includes upgrading their security systems and ensuring that they function properly to protect their fans and players. The technology to accomplish this is readily available, and it would be a wise investment in the stadium's future safety.