Force hails ‘successful and positive’ policing operation at British Grand Prix

The force said it had put a “robust” security operation in place, including the deployment of live facial recognition (LFR) technology – the first time it has been used outside of the South Wales Police and Metropolitan Police Service areas – as it looked to avoid joining the list of high-profile sporting events disrupted by climate change protesters this year.

The South Wales Police’s LFR team was at the circuit to help provide “a high-visibility presence” over its use, with locations where LFR was in operation clearly marked by signage.

Around 480,000 people visited Silverstone for the UK’s largest sporting event, with more than 160,000 spectators in attendance on Sunday alone to watch the latest round of the Formula 1 World Championship.

The force said: “To ensure everyone enjoyed a crime-free and safe experience as possible during their visit to the county, Northamptonshire Police delivered a robust policing operation, which included the deployment of LFR for the first time.

“Uniformed officers, detectives, PCSOs from the county force patrolled the vast circuit, campsites and surrounding road network with the support of colleagues from Thames Valley Police and Northamptonshire and Thames Valley Special Constabulary.

“In addition to this, there was also a high-visibility presence from specialist resources, including armed officers, dog search teams, roads policing and Safer Roads teams, automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) units and South Wales Police’s LFR team.”

Event commander for Northamptonshire Police, Detective Superintendent Richard Tompkins, said: “With 480,000 people attending this year’s event, our priority was to keep the public safe and to ensure they had an enjoyable, crime-free visit to our county.

“It is fair to say that it has been an extremely busy four days due to the sheer volume of people on site, however, it has been a successful and positive policing operation, with only a handful of incidents requiring police intervention.

“After many years’ experience leading the policing operation for this event, each year brings its own challenges, and this year was no different and the stringent security measures put in place worked well.

“Planning for this event involves people from various organisations, however, it wouldn’t have been a success without the support of the public, who provided us with 480,000 extra pairs of eyes and ears over the four days.”

Det Supt Tompkins added: “I would like to thank everyone who contributed to the smooth running of the operation and helped to ensure the safety and security of racegoers, campers, staff, and contractors, as well as residents and road users.

“It is a real team effort, and we could not achieve this without the support from Thames Valley Police, South Wales Police, and of course our East Midlands regional colleagues along with Silverstone, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, East Midlands Ambulance Service, Highways Agency, local authorities, and others.

“I would also like to express my thanks to other colleagues within the force, including response officers, neighbourhood officers and investigators, who were on duty as normal over the weekend, helping to fight crime and keep people safe across the rest of the county.

“Officers enjoy engaging with the crowd and there is always a real buzz around the event.”