Policing Eurovision: A Multi-Agency Approach

This book offers a rare behind-the-scenes account of successful multi-agency working at a major event – specifically, how Liverpool planned and delivered the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, one of the world’s most high-profile live events. With 37 competing nations and more than 12,000 accredited staff, Eurovision represented the largest and most complex multi-agency operation the city had ever undertaken. Based on five months of exceptional access to planning meetings and nine days of live events, this book reveals how organisations, including Culture Liverpool, the BBC, the police, emergency services and event partners, worked together to manage a fast-moving operation during a period marked by global security concerns.

Using field observations, policy documents, interviews and surveys, the authors show how agencies coordinated to address potential challenges such as crowd safety, cyber threats and counter terrorism risks. The book highlights the relationships, leadership approaches and information sharing practices that shaped Liverpool’s internationally recognised success in hosting major events. It also offers candid insights into moments of pressure, collaboration and critical decision-making, providing practical lessons for anyone involved in planning or managing large-scale operations.

By opening a normally closed world, the book presents a unique multi-perspective view of how Eurovision was “policed,” the success behind the “Liverpool approach” and what its story reveals about effective partnership working today.

This book will therefore be of interest to practitioners, policymakers, academics and students across policing, public safety, event management and governance.

Michael Smith is a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice at Edge Hill University, having served for 30 years as a police officer, specialising in public order and public safety policing, where he has national and international experience. Michael has previously published Protest Policing and Human Rights: A Dialogical Approach.

Rebecca Phythian is a Reader in Policing at Edge Hill University and a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow researching international law enforcement information exchange. Her work focuses on police and partner information sharing, and she collaborates widely with industry, police and other agencies nationally and internationally.