Police ‘prevented riots’ at Olympic site
Top police chiefs defend their response to England’s riots, telling the Home Affairs Select Committee they prevented attacks on the Olympic site by monitoring social media.
The President of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), Sir Hugh Orde, told MPs that there was no “pre-intelligence” to help police co-ordinate their response before violence erupted.
He said: “That’s the nature of the beast – the high complexity of trying to organise this with these fast moving events and no foresight or knowledge. This was a different sort of event that required a very flexible response.
“I’m not sure huge reviews of guidance would have changed diddly-squat in relation to how police responded.”
But Scotland Yard Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin said he wanted to clear up “comments about the fragmentation” between politicians and the police.
I’m not sure huge reviews of guidance would have changed diddly-squat in relation to how police responded. Sir Hugh Orde, ACPO President
He told MPs: “The relationship between myself and Hugh, as well as with the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary is very supportive. And the results of the Cobra meetings have been very effective.
“The police service will always learn from what it’s done. We’re not afraid of getting advice. But the perception of us at loggerheads is not helpful at all in responding to the situation.”
He said there was a 400 per cent increase in 999 calls during the riots. Nearly 1,700 people have been arrested for disorder across 660 crime scenes.
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Attacks on Olympic sites prevented
Assistant Commissioner Lynne Owens said police were able to prevent attacks on several sites, including Olympic venues, after gathering information through Twitter and BlackBerry messages.
“The amount of information was overwhelming. But through Twitter and BBM, there was intelligence that the Olympic sites, both Westfield and Oxford Street were going to be targeted. And we were able to secure all those places and indeed there was no damage at any of them,” she said.
“All of those sites were protected and we were able to respond because of our live monitoring of social media sites.”
Tim Godwin said he considered seeking the authority to block communications via Twitter.
“I did contemplate asking authorities to switch it off,” Mr Godwin said.
“But the legalities of that are very questionable. And it does provide some useful intelligence, but the problem is it’s a massive amount of information to synthesise and a lot of it is false and silly.”
Police intervention
When asked why police did not intervene in some incidents, Sir Hugh said the priority was to restore order and arrests could be made afterwards with the help of CCTV footage.
“The priority was to protect life and property. But when you arrest someone, it does take two or three officers off the streets. So the issue of restoring order to streets and arresting afterwards becomes a numerical problem,” he said.
Sir Hugh Orde told the Committee he has not yet made up his mind about whether or not to apply for the post of Met Commissioner. Applications for the position close tomorrow.
Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin confirmed he would be applying.
The police chiefs praised a “very tired force”, many who worked more than 18 hour-days during the riots.