Controlling Rude, Rowdy Football Fans : It’s a Security Nightmare, Say Police Officers at Stadiums

Los Angeles Police Lt. Alan B. Kerstein had taken a day off from his usual duties at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum when the unthinkable happened and stadium security completely collapsed.

The calamitous event did not occur during a heavy-metal rock concert or an international soccer match. It was a Los Angeles Raiders football game.

As the clock ticked down on the Raiders’ 1984 AFC championship victory over the Seattle Seahawks, police and private security officers “lost” the playing field to an onslaught of several thousand celebrating fans.

Petite Raiderette cheerleaders and 275-pound linemen scrambled for safety while police officers launched several unsuccessful baton-wielding sorties against the unruly fans. Reinforcements, including 10 officers on horseback--a cavalry charge of sorts--finally succeeded in restoring order.

For Kerstein, who has policed Coliseum events since 1973, the crowd surge was a grim reminder that controlling fans at professional football games is perhaps the toughest challenge he and other stadium security officials face.

Police officials who monitor crowd safety at the Coliseum, at Anaheim Stadium and at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego agree that keeping the peace at a baseball game or even a tractor pull is child’s play compared to Sunday afternoon pro football.

“This is not the opera, it’s the NFL,” observed Kerstein, who supervises Los Angeles police officers at Coliseum events. “You can’t expect people to just sit there and politely clap and say ‘jolly good, jolly good.’ ”

How to prevent the most violent incidents at football games has become a subject of debate since the beating of a 35-year-old Pittsburgh Steelers supporter during a Raiders game last month. The man was briefly in a coma as the result of his injuries, but has since been released from a hospital.

Although it was not the first time a fan had been injured at a Raiders game, the severity of the beating led to calls for beefed-up security at the Coliseum.

Some have advocated a ban on the sale of beer at the stadium, arguing that drunken fans are responsible for the rowdiest behavior.

Last week, Coliseum officials announced they would no longer sell beer in 20-ounce cups, opting instead for 16-ounce containers. The Coliseum Commission is now considering implementing a temporary ban on beer sales at Raiders games as part of a plan to reduce stadium violence.

Approximately 16,000 to 26,000 cups of beer are sold at Raiders games.

While police officials agree that drunkenness is a major contributor to stadium violence during football games, they disagree on whether banning alcohol sales would solve the problem.

“It’s true that our most frequent contacts are with people who have had too much to drink,” said San Diego Police Lt. Bill Skinner, who is responsible for security at Jack Murphy Stadium. “But I can’t say the problems are caused by people who buy beer inside the stadium. There’s tailgate parties in the parking lot.”

For Anaheim Police Sgt. Jim Flammini, who supervises security at Anaheim Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams, the problems are linked to the nature of professional football itself.

When 80,000 people of various temperaments and income levels pack a stadium to watch grown men beat each other into the ground for three hours, he said, a few slugfests in the stands are inevitable.

“You’re in an environment that is very high in emotions,” Flammini said. “Professional football is a rough-and-tumble contact sport. It seems to have a way of exciting people. . . . If someone says the wrong thing at the wrong time, (other fans) might want to defend their team, either verbally or sometimes with their fists.”

By contrast, Flammini said, California Angels baseball games are relatively placid events.

“The baseball behavior has been fantastic,” Flammini said. “We’ve had very few incidents as compared to last year.”

For police officials, the best defense against ugly incidents at football games is to teach officers basic crowd-control strategies and the elements of mass psychology.

At the Coliseum, Lt. Kerstein commands about 80 to 100 Los Angeles police officers for most events, although the number of assigned officers has increased significantly for Raiders games after last month’s incident.

Kerstein said his officers play close attention to sections 1 through 4 and 26 through 29 because those seats are sold to fans who do not have season tickets.

“Season ticket holders tend to be much more focused on the game and less aggressive,” Kerstein said. “For every one fight I’ll have within the confines of the season ticket area, I’ll have 25 or 50 fights outside of those areas.”

Another fundamental rule Kerstein teaches his officers is that they should avoid plunging alone into the stands to break up a fight. Instead, he said, they should work in teams of six.

Ideally, four officers break up the fight itself, separating troublemakers as quickly as possible from the rest of the crowd in “commando-like strikes,” Kerstein said. All the while, two other officers guard the rear to ensure the officers are not hit from behind by fans throwing bottles or other objects.

If necessary, the unruly fans are then handcuffed in the relative safety of the stadium tunnel.

“You can’t go too far into the crowd alone because it really presents an officer-safety issue,” Kerstein said. “Sometimes I’ve had to go in alone because of the situation. . . . There’s been times I’ve been knocked on my butt. It comes with the territory.”

Besides the near-riot that occured when the Raiders beat the Seahawks and the fans converged on the field in 1984, the worst day Kerstein can remember was in 1988, when the Raiders played host to the Rams, who won the game 22-17.

“If sections 1 through 15 had been all Raiders fans and 15 to 31 had been all Rams fans, I could have done the whole thing with five cops--piece of cake,” Kerstein said. “Unfortunately, every other seat was a Ram fan and the next one was a Raider fan. They started fighting 30 minutes before kickoff and were fighting an hour after the game ended. It was our worst game.”

The situation was also becoming ugly on Sept. 23, when the Pittsburgh Steelers fan was injured.

Kerstein said that just moments before the incident, he had called for officers deployed outside the stadium to help reinforce security in the stands. Several fights had erupted throughout the stadium--they were small “spot fires” that could have become a full-fledged conflagration if action wasn’t taken.

“It was getting very agitated,” he said. “We had a number of problems and a number of ejections. A couple of people threw bottles. That’s just deadly. That could kill an officer.”

Officers who work in the Coliseum said flying bottles are only one of the problems they face patrolling the stands during Raiders games.

They complain of fans who make them the butt of derisive jokes and who openly insult them when they break up fights. When their backs are turned, fans pelt them with cups, paper airplanes and other items.

“It feels I’m like a walking target for every half-empty glass of beer,” said one youngish-looking officer who declined to be identified.

His partner, a 10-year veteran, added: “It’s like letting all the animals loose inside a cage and walking in.”

STADIUMS: ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AND ARRESTS The relationship between fan violence and alcohol sales at Southern California stadiums has been a subject of debate since the Sept. 23 incident in which a Pittsburgh Steelers fan was severely beaten while cheering his team at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Following are figures comparing alcohol consumption by fans and arrest rates at four major Southern California stadiums. Police officials note that different arrest policies at each stadium have an impact on the number of arrests. PASADENA ROSE BOWL 1989 Rose Bowl Game Average Attendance: 102,000 Arrests: 13 misdemeanors Approximate amount of beer sold: 33,000 cups 1989 UCLA games (6) Average Attendance: 50,000 to 100,000 per game Arrests: 37 misdemeanors Approximate amount of beer sold: 25,000 to 40,000 cups 1990 UCLA games (2) Arrests: 0 Approximate amount of beer sold: 0 1987 Super Bowl Game Average Attendance: 104,000 Arrests: 25 misdemeanors Approximate amount of beer sold: 74,000 cups NOTES: The Pasadena Police Department averages 15 ejections per game. A trial one-year, no-alcohol ban began at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 6. Approximately 500 cups of non-alcoholic beer sold per game. LOS ANGELES MEMORIAL COLISEUM 1989 Raider Season (10 games, including preseason.) Average Attendance: 50,000 to 80,000 Arrests: 6 felonies and 21 misdemeanors Approximate amount of beer sold: 16,000 to 26,000 cups 1990 Raider Season (5 games, including preseason.) Arrests: 41 (4 felonies and 37 misdemeanors) 1989 USC Games (7) Average Attendance: 75,000 to 80,000 Arrests: 2 misdemeanors Approximate amount of beer sold: 24,000 to 26,000 cups 1990 USC Games (1) Arrests: 1 misdemeanor NOTES: The Los Angeles Police Department averages 50 ejections per game. Beer figures are based on 32% of attendance. ANAHEIM STADIUM 1989 Rams Season (11 games, including preseason.) Average Attendance: 60,000 to 70,000 Arrests: 36 Citations: 152 Approximate amount of beer sold: 18,000 to 25,000 cups per game 1990 Rams Season (3 games, including preseason.) Arrests: 14 Citations: 26 1989 Angel Games (81 plus two preseason games) Average Attendance: 32,000 Arrests: 59 Citations: 296 Approximate amount of beer sold: 10,000 to 11,000 cups per game. 1990 Angel Games (81 plus one preseason game) Arrests: 42 Citations: 151 NOTES: The Anaheim Police Department averages 15 to 20 ejections per game and do not break their arrests down by felonies and misdemeanors. Beer figures are based on 30% to 35% of total attendance. JACK MURPHY STADIUM, San Diego 1989 Chargers Season (10 games, including preseason.) Average Attendance: 40,000 to 50,000 Arrests: 55 misdemeanors Citations: 18 Approximate amount of beer sold: Not available. 1990 Chargers Season (4 games, including preseason.) Arrests: 6 misdemeanors Citations: 5 1989 Padres (83 games) Average Attendance: 26,000 Arrests: 54 misdemeanors 1990 Padres (81 games) Average Attendance: 24,000 Arrests: 49 misdemeanors NOTES: The San Diego Police Department average 8 to 10 ejections per game. Service America Corp., which has the food and beverage concession for Jack Murphy Stadium refused to return calls.