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1/14/11 4:09 PM | Johan Lindahl
Police are launching plans to nip any crowd trouble at the Australian Open before it begins, with patrols and undercover agents at transport hubs in Melbourne.
The strategy will be to catch bands of potential trouble-makers -often groups of flag-waving fans from the same country - before they get into Melbourne Park.
The Open has been blighted at recent editions by crowd problems, including Nazi salutes and flares on the grounds a year ago which resulted in 35 people being turfed out of Melbourne Park. Previous problems also included a brawl complete with flying plastic chairs in the family-dedicated television viewing piazza and trouble from Greek fans in 2008 which required the use of pepper spray.
Police plan to patrol buses, trams and trains. "We've set the tone early and if fans don't follow the advice they won't last long," said an official. Punishments could include a 24-hour ban from the tennis. Other weapons likely to be used in the initiative include CCTV cameras with facial recognition.
The first test will come at the weekend at the benefit to be staged for victims of this week's Queensland floods.
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