UK Police Chief Resigns After Inquiry Shows Intelligence Behind Israeli Fan Ban Was ‘Greatly Exaggerated’

The chief of England’s second largest police force has resigned amid mounting scrutiny over his force’s decision to ban Israeli soccer fans from attending a match in Birmingham last year.Craig Guildford stepped down as chief constable of the West Midlands police on Friday, just two days after an official inquiry found that the intelligence cited by the force to identify Maccabi Tel Aviv fans as a threat to public safety was “greatly exaggerated” or “simply untrue.”Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood, who ordered the inquiry, declared that the “damning” findings signaled a “failure of leadership” by Mr. Guildford. She added that she had lost confidence in his ability to continue leading the force.The report and Ms. Mahmood’s grim assessment proved to be the final blow for Mr. Guildford, who has faced mounting calls to resign as the force’s justification for banning Israeli fans from a November 6 Europa League game against Aston Villa collapsed under scrutiny.In announcing his retirement, Mr. Guildford refrained from issuing an apology to the Israeli fans or Britain’s Jewish community. He blamed what he described as the “political and media frenzy” surrounding the situation and stated that retirement “is in the best interests of the organisation, myself and my family.”Mr. Guildford and other senior force leaders were summoned to appear before the Commons home affairs committee earlier this month amid accusations that they had wrongfully portrayed Maccabi Tel Aviv fans as safety threats when their own intelligence suggested the Israeli visitors were the ones at risk.Documents presented during the hearing showed that the police force had received “high confidence intelligence” that locals in the majority-Muslim neighborhood sought to “arm” themselves against the Israeli soccer fans. Additional intelligence indicated the existence of “local hostility towards the visitors based on their nationality.”The leader of the Birmingham City Council, John Cotton, told the committee that the police did not share such findings. Instead, the force proceeded to ban the Israeli fans from attending the game and justified the move by portraying the Israelis as “uniquely violent.”Documents show that the police assessment was later amended to downgrade the risk to Maccabi fans and instead misrepresent them as a high risk to locals.Wednesday’s report shed further light on the force’s flawed security assessment, including the finding that a fictitious soccer match referenced by the force in its assessment was the result of an “artificial intelligence hallucination.” Mr. Guildford had previously claimed that artificial intelligence was not used in preparing the document and insisted the match was identified in a Google search.Mr. Guildford on Wednesday offered his “profound apology” for the error but noted that he had “been advised that the match had been identified by way of a Google search” and had “no intention to mislead the Committee.”

UK Police Chief Resigns After Inquiry Shows Intelligence Behind Israeli Fan Ban Was ‘Greatly Exaggerated’

UK Police Chief Resigns After Inquiry Shows Intelligence Behind Israeli Fan Ban Was ‘Greatly Exaggerated’

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