“Are you media?” barked the German riot police officer with a gun at their hip.
“Yes,” me and my photographer colleague replied showing our press cards. It was at this moment I expected to be ejected from our position inside a police cordon and potentially blocked from observing events unfolding at the Serbian bar attacked by England fans before the Euro 2024 game.
But instead, the officer nodded their head and let us continue to observe. As it progressed I found they were also fine with me approaching witnesses after they’d spoken to them.
This is not what me or many of my colleagues in the media are used to. In Britain it is far too often the case that arriving to cover a chaotic event you are blocked from this type of enquiry, told to leave or have witnesses warned against talking to you.
However, the German police officers dealing with the ugly scenes in Gelsenkirchen had no problem being recorded by us and certainly would not stand in the way of our observing the events.
The result was that I was able to get a far better and more accurate picture of the situation. Instead of scrabbling about picking up half-truths from passers-by or posts online I could watch and learn what was happening properly.
I was able to speak to so many eyewitnesses of the events that when an inaccurate statement was released by the UK Football Policing Unit, which initially portrayed events in Gelsenkirchen inaccurately we were not swayed. The subsequent change in their stance confirmed what our unobstructed on-the-ground reporting was able to ascertain.
This experience with the German authorities was not unique. In the run up to the tournament I’ve been impressed by the transparency and willingness to engage with the media.
It is a stereotype that in Europe there is a tendency towards bureaucracy, but in my experience dealing with police in the UK it often feels like you need a stupid number of people to sign off a simple direct conversation with a senior officer or permission to attend an event.
This mature approach extended beyond the dealings with journalists. When it came to fan disorder the police jumped on any violence or wrong behaviour but did not start arresting people in a manner that could have inflamed the situation.
The result was that the unfortunate events at the bar remained largely isolated, chaos did not descend because they placed the agency in the fans’ hands.
Cross the line and you’ll be dealt with, but there would not be punitive sanctions.
By choosing to subdue the crowds it also meant the police were not caught up in the bureaucracy of processing people who’d been arrested, which takes up time and keeps officers off the streets.
It should be said that UK cops were part of this sensible effort. But given the disorder which is creeping back into the game perhaps we can learn to manage it better from the German police.
Definitely the facilitation of journalistic enquiry is something we should try to replicate
