Today the Palace Supporters Trust have published the letter of complaint which their solicitors have sent to the Sussex Police about the policing at the league match in November against Brighton at the Amex.
That letter referenced our Freedom of Information request, so we thought we’d post a brief update on what has happened since November 2017 for those of you that are interested.
As you might all recall, back in November 2017 we submitted various Freedom of Information Act requests to the Sussex Police about their allegation that Palace fans had been carrying knives and knuckle-dusters at the league match against Brighton at the Amex.
After those requests were submitted the Police admitted that they had been incorrect in saying that Palace fans had been in possession of weapons and issued an apology.
The Sussex Police didn’t, however, explain why a senior officer had come to put information about knives and knuckledusters into the public domain or why the Sussex Police had stated that Palace fans had been at the match without tickets. So we didn’t withdraw our first Freedom of Information request and made a further request dealing with the allegation about Palace fans at the match not having tickets.
On 12 February 2018, we received a response from the Sussex Police. Unfortunately, the Sussex Police didn’t provide the explanation of their failings and the information we were expecting.
Instead they simply said that disclosure of the information was not in the public interest as it could prejudice future investigations. That letter can be read at the below link:
We responded to the Sussex Police on 27 February 2018 setting out why we thought they should explain themselves. That letter contains some legal argument but various points about the public interest in providing the information from paragraphs 41 onwards. The letter can be read in full at the below link:
At the time of this article we have still received no response to our letter of 27 February. We will update you as and when we do.