Taylor Report - South Yorkshire Police

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53. Radio contact at Hillsborough from control to serials operating both inside and outside the ground was UHF on channel 25. There was a Wl FU portable base station in the control box and if it failed there was a stand-by station under the operator's bench. Hand sets were issued to all ranks of Sergeant and above. Community Constables on duty would already have their own. Other Constables had no radio. Communication was on "talk through" i.e. any message from any source would be heard by everyone tuned in and if more than one source spoke messages could become garbled. Ear pieces were issued to some officers in an attempt to overcome the loud crowd noise which made receipt of signals very difficult. There were other radio channels open to Sergeant Goddard: VHF to police Headquarters at Snig Hill, channel 35 to Fl Sub-divisional Headquarters at Hammerton Road and channel 19 used by CID. There was also a set tuned to Sheffield Wednesday's radio system between its control room and the stewards.
CHAPTER2 15th APRIL: THE BUILD-UP TO 2.30pm Early Arrivals 54. 15 April 1989 was a warm sunny spring Saturday. The match was a sell-out, so 54,000 ticket holders were expected. Others would come without tickets hoping to acquire them or even to gain access otherwise. The following account concentrates, as did the evidence, on the western approaches and the Liverpool supporters since the disaster occurred at their end. They began to arrive in the Hillsborough area quite early in small numbers. Some brought cans of beer with them and were seen drinking as they walked; others took advantage of the weather and sat about on walls and open spaces. When the public houses opened, many resorted there, drinking inside or spilling out into the sunshine. Leppings Lane and its environs comprise a mixed shopping and residential area. Local residents saw groups of Liverpool supporters keen to find a public house or off-licence. Many were asking for tickets or "spares". There were a few touts selling them at inflated prices. From an early stage, some of the fans were using private gardens and yards to urinate. As the morning wore on, numbers increased. Requests for tickets and trespass to urinate also increased. Still the prevailing mood was one of carnival, good humour and expectation. Public Houses 55. There were some 74 shops with off-licences in and around Sheffield. In general, they opened at 8 am. Liverpool supporters did visit them but the evidence did not suggest a great amount of alcoholic drink was bought there. 56. Opening time at public houses was in general 11 am. Some remained closed all day. Of the others, some 72, mostly in the city, were frequented by local patrons only. Some 23 public houses, however, served over a hundred Liverpool supporters each. Another 51 served more than 20 each. Little trouble was reported, but many supporters drank enough to affect their mood. At first excitement: later frustration. The Gathering Crowd 57. Towards the end of the morning, fans gathered on and around the bridge near the Leppings Lane entrance. They seemed reluctant to enter the ground early. All turnstiles were open at 12 noon and one or two as early as 11.30 am. Some 53 police had been deployed to operate outside the turnstiles and in the Leppings Lane area. They enquired at random whether fans had tickets. Those who had not were advised to go away; nevertheless, many returned more than once. Those who had tickets were guided in the right direction. The police tried to persuade them to enter the ground early. Officers, male and female, had been posted outside each turnstile with the duty of searching entrants for weapons, drink or drugs. Once through the turnstile, an entrant was liable to be searched again by one of a serial of officers positioned just inside. 58. At about 12 noon Chief Inspector Creaser asked Superintendent Murray whether the pens on the west terrace were to be filled one by one successively, but was told that they should all be available from the start and the fans should find their own level. 59. By 2 pm it was apparent to those inside the ground and those monitoring events in the police and Club control rooms that the number of Nottingham fans in their places greatly outnumbered those from Liverpool. The Kop and the south stand were filling up steadily, but the north and west stands were half empty. It was noted about that time that the turnstile figures showed only 12,000 had entered as against 20,000 at the same time the previous year. On the west terraces, although pens 3 and 4 were filling, the wing pens 1,2,6 and 7 were nearly empty. At 2.15 pm a Tannoy message asked fans in pens 3 and 4 to move forward and make room for others. 60. There had been three special trains from Liverpool in 1988. This time, there was only one. It arrived early, just before 2 pm, at Wadsley Bridge station. The 350 passengers were met by both mounted and foot police officers who escorted them in a crocodile down Leppings Lane. They were orderly and passed through the turnstiles into the ground by about 2.20 pm without incident. 61. By this time the police Traffic Division reported that the Liverpool routes were clear, so the majority of Liverpool fans were in the Sheffield area. The numbers converging on the Leppings Lane entrance were increasing rapidly. Between the perimeter gates and the turnstiles the crowd became congested. There was no longer a separate queue at each turnstile but a single phalanx filling the whole approach area. The foot officers outside the turnstiles were no longer able to search everyone and had difficulty in searching even selectively.
Page 1: Cm 765 HOME OFFICE THE HILLSBOROUGH
Page 5 and 6: CONTENTS Paragraph Page INTRODUCTIO
Page 7 and 8: Paragraph Page CHAPTER 14 - THE RES
Page 9 and 10: The Rt Hon Douglas Hurd CBE, MP Sec
Page 11 and 12: The most eloquent tribute to the fa
Page 13 and 14: each radial fence. When those gates
Page 15: Policing Arrangements 47. At the 19
Page 19 and 20: CHAPTERS THE CRISIS AT THE TURNSTIL
Page 21 and 22: CHAPTER 4 THE DISASTER 71. The init
Page 23 and 24: CHAPTERS THE AFTERMATH Rescue Attem
Page 25 and 26: gate had been forced and there had
Page 27 and 28: CHAPTER 6 SPECIFIC INCIDENTS 113.1
Page 29 and 30: CHAPTER? THE LAYOUT AT THE LEPPINGS
Page 31 and 32: 132. Also in 1985, electronic count
Page 33 and 34: Section 2(2) was repealed by the Fi
Page 35 and 36: "progressing steadily" and should b
Page 37 and 38: practice, police officers have regu
Page 39 and 40: left it to the fans themselves to "
Page 41 and 42: CHAPTER 10 THE BUILD-UP AT THE TURN
Page 43 and 44: who had paid for tickets and travel
Page 45 and 46: "Q Were you aware of a build-up of
Page 47 and 48: motorway or fog. I accept that the
Page 49 and 50: CHAPTER 12 THE BARRIERS IN PEN 3 Ba
Page 51 and 52: CHAPTER 13 THE CRUSHING NOT RECOGNI
Page 53 and 54: CHAPTER 15 THE PERIMETER GATES WERE
Page 55 and 56: PART III - CONCLUSIONS CHAPTER 16 B
Page 57 and 58: CHAPTER 18 POLICE Choice of Ends by
Page 59 and 60: CHAPTER 19 THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE
Page 61 and 62: CHAPTER 21 FIRST AID AND EMERGENCY
Page 63 and 64: PART IV - INTERIM RECOMMENDATIONS C
Page 65 and 66: CHAPTER 24 - THE RECOMMENDATIONS 31
Page 67 and 68:
* 19. The correlation between each
Page 69:
APPENDICES 61
Page 72 and 73:
Appendix 2: Leppings Lane: the peri
Page 74 and 75:
Barriers... Pre 1979 1 1979....Addi
Page 77 and 78:
APPENDIX 6 SPECIFIC INCIDENTS Mr Hi
Page 79 and 80:
15. There was evidence from Assista
Page 81 and 82:
APPENDIX? LIST OF PARTIES AND THEIR
Page 83 and 84:
APPENDIX 8 LIST OF THOSE GIVING ORA
Page 85:
In addition, statements of evidence
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Taylor Report - South Yorkshire Police

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