Aug 2008 01

High cost of policing biker bash falls to residents6

Last year Canadian biker Gerry Tobin was shot dead by fellow bikers on the M40 after attending the annual ‘Bulldog Bash’ in Warwickshire. This year the cost of policing the event will be a staggering £1.4million.

Although the police are refusing to give exact details on just how this money will be spent, The Coventry Telegraph reports that:

“Most of the huge bill will go to pay for thousands of extra police man-hours and will include paying officers from neighbouring forces who will be drafted in.
Officers are expected to be on constant guard. They also intend to monitor every one of the thousands of visitors at the festival and will be using special automatic number-plate recognition equipment to alert them to would-be troublemakers.
Stop and searches will also take place at two locations near the site and some roads will be closed while the festival is on”.

To put the cost of this into perspective, the policing of last year’s event cost a fraction of this amount at £97,639. Bulldog_bash

Tobin’s murder has cast a shadow over this event which is perhaps unjustified, and no doubt thousands of bikers will arrive in Warwickshire for the four day stint intent on nothing but a good time. Local business most probably prospers from the trade and it’s likely that in years gone by the Bulldog Bash has been a real asset for the local community and it’s tourism, but this level of policing can only change the tone of what no doubt started as an innocent summer gathering for the biking community.

£1.4million of policing translates as a presence so heavy and so oppressive that it can only be disruptive and unwelcome, as well as intimidating for local residents. And what if something happens regardless and the security needs to be upped once more next year? Will this festival be preserved at any cost to the taxpayer? Surely ordinary residents can’t be expected to shell out more year on year for something that benefits so few?

There’s little doubt that the events organisers should be expected to shell out for any extra security, and if this results in inflated ticket prices, so be it. Perhaps the prospect of increasingly expensive tickets would act as a deterrent to those thinking of causing trouble.

Most people aren’t so familiar with the biking community, and even less so with the murky underworld of criminality that is often associated with it, so to ask residents in Warwickshire to shoulder the vast cost of hosting something that is now quite clearly considered to be a hostile and dangerous event is both unfair and ridiculous. 

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  • Pat

    As I recall the murderers were in a Rover- they weren’t bikers. Its happened once. This sounds like an grandstanding from the police- would they put up a similar operation for a pub if someone got killed miles away on his way home? And the reaction is way too small to make a difference- they can’t control every road that anyone might take to go home, and I guess that the murderers simply picked the easiest available opportunity and would have done their work some other time or place if that became more convenient.
    Hence the maximum possible achievement of this operation will be to move any repeat to another place or time.Another example of government falling between two stools- way too small an operation to make any difference and way too expensive for the threat its meant to counter.
    I am only familiar with the biking community but know nothing of the murky world of criminality you claim is associated with it- why do people believe that criminals are more likely to ride bikes than they are to go to pubs? Its the reverse of my experience.
    Of course it does have the benefit that a lot of policemen will be able to attend a party for free, and get enough overtime to fund a party of their own afterwards. I wonder whether the police motorcyclists will get a free go on the drag strip?

  • Ian P

    Whilst not a “Biker” in the sense of this article, I do ride and wonder what the justification is for the phrase “the murky underworld of criminality that is often associated with it”. Come on, TPA, now you’ve made the accusation, back it up!

  • Ian P

    Whilst not a “Biker” in the sense of this article, I do ride and wonder what the justification is for the phrase “the murky underworld of criminality that is often associated with it”. Come on, TPA, now you’ve made the accusation, back it up!

  • Fiona

    Pat,
    1. Just because the men who shot Gerry Tobin were in a Rover doesn’t mean that they weren’t bikers. Newspaper articles suggest it was a motorcycle gang feud.
    2. No, I don’t think criminals are more likely to ride bikes. I don’t think I suggested that for a second. I’m confident that by far the majority of criminals don’t ride bikes.
    As far as my use of the phrase “the murky world of criminality that is often associated with it” is concerned:
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/inside-the-biker-gangs-the-truth-about-guns-drugs-and-organised-crime-461508.html
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/3311057.stm

  • Victoria

    I went to the bull dog this year and am very dissapointed thatthe tax payers money was A COMPLETE WASTE. The police did nothing apart from make people feel discriminated against and intimidated with MACHINE GUNS. Stand around, oh and the worst bit they made people feel intimidated to leave the site to visit stratford as many of usually do, so the traders are not only paying for the police through their tax they are paying for it due to complete lack of sales.

  • Victoria

    Just to clear another misconseption up.
    The police werent actually in the show or allowed on the site so there for would have been preaty useless if there had been any problems. The police were only allowed to stand OUTSIDE the long marsdon site.
    What i cant understand is if they can try to cancel the bulldog due to trouble or revenge killings, why cant they cancle football matches like the one that TRASHED the town of Manchester not so long ago?
    There was far more trouble there than there ever has been at the bulldog. Not only that Poor Gerry was killed a long way from the bulldog and the bulldog can not be held responsible for that.