West Midlands Police have to restore trust after Israeli fan ban row

Residents have said they hope the new leader of West Midlands Police would do what was necessary to “restablish confidence” in the force’s leadership.

Craig Guildford, the former Chief Constable, announced his retirement on Friday after the government lost confidence in his leadership.

It was after criticism of a decision to ban Israeli fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv from a Europa League football match against Aston Villa in Birmingham in November. This led to Guildford to apologising to MPs for misleading them.

Roger Harmer, Liberal Democrat leader at Birmingham City Council, said he was glad Guildford had gone as his position was clearly untenable once he had mislead parliament.

Deputy chief constable Scott Green has been appointed acting chief constable.

West Midlands Police has apologised and said it did not deliberately distort evidence ahead of the 6 November game.

A review by His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary into the reasons for banning fans from the game, found the police force had overstated threats and not engaged effectively with the Jewish groups in Birmingham.

Police also admitted they had used AI to provide information about a match involving Maccabi TA and West Ham after previously denying they had done so. The match had not happened.

Harmer told the BBC the police had used “wrong information” to “make a really important decision”.

“I think people are actually generally quite understanding that mistakes are made, but when you then double down on it… He did mislead parliament. It’s not the mistake, it’s the trying to deny the mistake was made,” he said.

The shadow home secretary Chris Philp, who has written to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) asking it to investigate potential “gross misconduct” by Guildford, described the episode as “appalling”.

He told the BBC’s Today programme that it was “not good enough” to say that the chief constable has retired and that “personal accountability” was needed to avoid the situation happening again.

“They chose to capitulate in the face of threats by extreme elements within Birmingham’s Muslim community,” Philp claimed.

“You should not be capitulating in the face of threats of violence by anyone whether it’s extreme elements in that community or anyone else.”

The IOPC has said it will continue looking into the actions of West Midlands Police, and the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from Birmingham and would act if there was any evidence of misconduct.

In Birmingham city centre, members of the public said the force was in a “difficult position”.

Michaela Butler said she could understand both sides of the story but that the West Midlands Force now had a lot of work to do within the community following the decision.

“I think that maybe he’s [Guildford] been scapegoated possibly for this and taken the brunt of the hit, when probably there were other people involved that were also responsible for that decision making,” she said.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of hard work for them to do, they’re going to have to work quite closely with the different communities to build up that trust.”

Speaking of the force’s use of AI, Susan White said it was “disappointing” that people weren’t using the professional skills and experience that they should.

“He should have checked,” she said of Guildford.

Mick Holland, a football fan from Norwich, said the chief constable had “saved face and money”.

“It wasn’t about the Maccabi fans whatsoever, it was about the locals,” he said.

“Football supporters should be able to go anywhere and it wasn’t the football supporters that were the problem.”

Members of the Jewish and Muslim communities in Birmingham said work needed to be done by the police to restore trust.

Speaking just before the resignation was announced Phil Carmel who works for an organisation preserving Jewish cemeteries across Europe, said the police had shown they were unfit for purpose and that there was a feeling within the Jewish community in the city that they were not consulted ahead of the decision to ban the Israeli fans.

“When events which are potentially hostile or potentially problematic for the community take place in your city, you expect the local police force to speak with you, to consult with you to understand your concerns,” he added.

Nasar Rafiq, a Muslim who formerly chaired the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Advisory group, accepted mistakes had been made by the force.

But he said: “If those mistakes weren’t made, I’m not sure if the police decision would have been different.”

He believed there was a risk that visiting Maccabi fans would have agitated the local Muslim community.

Rafiq argued the objective of preventing trouble had been achieved and “what let them down was not doing their homework properly, the evidence gathering”.