August Riots 'Unprecedented' – Police

A report by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has said the "unprecedented" nature of the August riots had "created significant challenges" for the police.

The MPS published the early findings from the ongoing internal review into the police response to the August disorder in London on Monday morning.

The main findings of the report at so far, according to the MPS, are that the changing nature, scale and speed of the events during the August raids and looting in London made it "unprecedented to anything seen by the MPS before".

"Therefore this created significant challenges for the police", and MPS spokesman said.

The report claims that officer numbers were increased each day based on intelligence, however, the report admits "with hindsight the MPS did not have enough officers available on the first night", while "additional officers did not arrive quickly enough".

Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens said: "Thoroughly reviewing disorder that touched almost every part of London was always going to be a significant task and we are progressing this as quickly as we can. We are committed to being as open as possible so that we, our partners and the public can properly understand what worked, what didn't and what we need to do differently.

"Today's report provides some high level emerging findings and we will publish more detailed findings as the review further progresses."

The report has also rebuked suggestions made after the riots, which saw millions of pounds worth of destruction and looting, that some officers were asked to not make arrests if looting was ongoing.

"There is no evidence… of senior commanders requiring local commanders to not make arrests if offences were taking place; indeed 450 arrests were made over the three nights of disorder."

The MPS said the review, which is expected to be fully published next year, would also look into making water cannons available to the MPS.

Police also found it difficult to handle the "volume and speed" of information on social media, which they said was "unprecedented" and therefore challenging to manage for intelligence purposes.

However, some changes are already planned. Along with increasing the number of public order trained officers, their vehicles and equipment, new technologies are being considered to see if they could provide "additional tactical options", the report said.

(DW/BMcC)