A senior police officer called Hillsborough chants "disgusting" and admitted "action needed to be taken".
National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) chairperson Martin Hewitt said the recent rise in Hillsborough-related chants is "disgusting and action needs to be taken to stop people doing that". Mr Hewitt was asked by the ECHO about chants relating to the 1989 tragedy, in which 97 Liverpool fans died.
The police chief appeared in front of the media today, Tuesday, January 31 as the police published an official response to a report into the experiences of the Hillsborough families. Mr Hewitt said: "There are a number of challenges with the kind of chants that you get at football.
READ MORE: Police apologise for Hillsborough failures and for 'blighting lives' of families
"Every football match we’ll have match commanders and we’ll be making sure that stewards are aware and stewards or police will deal with issues, but it is worrying that this is occurring. I certainly will, through our national police lead for football, I can say that I’ll raise that again and pick that up because of course today’s announcements will no doubt raise again the profile more broadly to Hillsborough.
"That will be a matter for match commanders, whether it’s at Anfield or any other stadium, to deal with and then work with the security regime, with the club, with the stewards and then the police that are on duty."
Last year the Football Association (FA) expressed concerns about a rise in the frequency of chants about the disaster, which happened at the FA Cup semi-final. The association said it supported efforts to stamp out the behaviour but could not sanction clubs because it only has jurisdiction under its rules to act on discriminatory chanting.
Mr Hewitt, along with College of Policing CEO Chief Constable Andy Marsh, had earlier apologised for police failures. The senior officers admitted "the service got it so wrong", and police failures were "the main cause of the tragedy and have continued to blight the lives of family members ever since".
The two officers announced a number of reforms, most significantly the introduction of a "duty of candour" that would put the interest of victims and families "above any other interest".
The police are the first major public body to respond to the Right Reverend Bishop James Jones, who wrote the Hillsborough Families Report more than five years ago. The apology, which not only covers the failings on the day but the 34-years since, is the first since the disaster.
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