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Summary D1: Evaluate the inter – agency cooperation of the emergency response services.
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Inter agency co-operation at disasters
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D1: Evaluate the inter – agency cooperation of the emergency response services.For this part of my assignment I am going to use the Hillsborough Disaster of 1989 as my example of
inter – agency cooperation.
On April 15 of 1989, the Hillsborough Disaster occurred at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield. As a
result of this, 96 individuals lost their lives, with another 766 being injured (these numbers included
non - fatal injuries). The cause of the incident was due to overcrowding in the central pens of the
stands. Since this disaster, two inquires have taken place:
1. The Taylor Inquiry (1990).
2. The Hillsborough Independent Panel (2012),
In August of 1989, an interim report of the Taylor Report was released with the final report being
released in January 1990. This was overseen by Lord Justice Taylor. He found that the primary cause
of the Hillsborough Disaster was the failure of police control.
Taylor concluded that ‘’policing broke down’’ and ‘’although there were other causes the main
reason for the was the ‘’failure of police control’’. Attention was also focused on the decision to
open the secondary gates, therefore, kick off should have been delayed, as done at previous
matches and venues.
Sheffield Wednesday were also criticised for the inadequate number of turnstiles at the Leppings
Lane end of the stadium and the poor quality of the crush barriers on the terraces, ‘’respects in
which failure by the club contributed to this disaster’’.
Lord Justice Taylor found that there were ‘’no provisions’’ for controlling the entry of the spectators
into the club's turnstile area. Senior police officers from South Yorkshire Police Service responded to
this by claiming ‘’they had no reason to anticipate problems as earlier events had proceeded without
major incident’’.
Taylor finalised his criticism of South Yorkshire Police by describing senior officers in command as
‘'defensive and evasive witnesses’' who refused to accept any responsibility of error related to the
disaster.
During the Hillsborough Independent Panel in 2012, it was found that the response as a whole that
was carried out by the authorities was both slow and poorly coordinated:
The Police did not declare a major incident and staff from South Yorkshire Metropolitan
Ambulance Service also failed recognise and pronounce the scene as a major incident.
Firefighters who were equipped with cutting appliances had difficulty getting into the
stadium ground, and despite dozens of ambulances being dispatched to the ground, access
to the pitch was nearly impossible because the police were simply only reporting ‘’crowd
trouble’’.
Out of all the ambulances that were dispatched, only two of them managed to access the
Leppings Lane end of the stadium, and of all 96 individuals that tragically died, only 14 were
admitted to hospital.
The Jury concluded that police errors in planning, defects at the stadium and delays in the
emergency response all contributed to the disaster that unfolded during that day in April.
Match Commander, Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, had a duty of care to every fan that
was in the stadium, the jurors decided. They found that Duckenfield was in breach of the duty of
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