US police officers were sent to study Scotland fans to help them prepare for facing fan trouble at the World Cup.
Officers were sent to both Scotland and Germany to examine a variety of types of fan behaviour including the use of flares, violence between supporters, and crowd surges.
They have reportedly learnt how to “defuse and de-escalate” tensions between rival fans.
Stacey Graves, chief of police at the Kansas City Police Department (KCPD), told The Times before the start of the World Cup this week: “We’ve done that with protesters but I’m not sure they show the same vigour of some of the football fans who will be coming here.”
The World Cup kicks off on Thursday night as Mexico and South Africa play in the first game in Mexico City.
Scotland will play their first game at 2am on Sunday against Haiti before going on to face Morocco and Brazil later this month.
Fans will not be segregated at matches across the US, Canada, and Mexico and they will be allowed to drink alcohol in their seats.
Licensing hours have also been relaxed to allow the sale of alcohol for 23 hours a day in bars and shops.
Fans are being urged to take care of their health, with experts from the University of Dundee having issued advice highlighting the risks of sleep deprivation, dehydration, and unhealthy snacking.
Graves said managing fans at the World Cup would be different to what her team are used to.
She said: “We have [Kansas City] Chiefs fans and we think we can be a little bit rowdy but it’s going to be a whole lot different when it comes to the World Cup. So we sent a contingency of KCPD to Germany and Scotland to study fan behaviour. It’s very different.”
The common use of pyrotechnics at European games was the biggest lesson learnt by officers, Graves said. Officers will be equipped with special fire extinguishers to deal with any issues.
The police force is set to deploy 1300 officers throughout the tournament and has drafted in hundreds of additional officers from 11 other states which are not hosting games.
The England team will be staying in Kansas and the FBI is using AI to protect players from terrorist attacks, spying, and sabotage.
Nine people were injured in a shooting near England's World Cup base over the weekend.
At least nine adults were taken to nearby hospitals after police responded to reports of shots fired on 79th Street and Troost Avenue around 4am on Saturday, police said. This is roughly five miles from where England will be based.
