Policing Large Scale Disorder: Lessons from the disturbances of ...

Ev w30 Home Affairs Committee: Evidence
specialist engineers were on standby. The engineers were both dealing with difficulties as soon as they occurred,
and were able to make instant changes to the network, boosting capacity as soon as it was needed. For example,
air-to-ground capacity was enhanced to allow five police aircraft to remain in contact, rather than the one or
two usually flying.
4.3 A conference call line was opened, meaning that the emergency and public safety services users could
instantly contact Airwave technical and customer support teams for advice on network management and to
resolve technical issues. The emergency services also used this to keep in touch with one another about
communications issues, which allowed quick exchanges of information and immediate reactions to fast
moving events.
4.4 In the days after the riots, Airwave’s standard system of constant network monitoring was enhanced,
meaning that any further outbreaks of trouble could be responded to quickly.
5.0 Network Capacity
5.1 The number of police on the streets during the disorder led to unprecedented traffic on the Airwave
network. The Airwave network is built to withstand 20% surges in traffic, however during the riots traffic on
the network increased by more than 100%, from two million calls on 2 August to four million on 9 August.
5.2 The Airwave network was able to handle this unprecedented upsurge in traffic around the Greater London
area, thanks to the additional capacity installed to cater for the heavy emergency service presence at the London
2012 Games. This additional capacity was added as part of a network retune earlier this year, facilitated by the
free issue of additional temporary radio spectrum, but will revert to 2010 levels in 2013, after the 2012 Games.
6.0 Policing Techniques
6.1 During this period of civil unrest and despite unprecedented pressure, the network remained fully
operational because of new Airwave developed monitoring tools which have been in place since the beginning
of 2011. The proactive monitoring technology is known as Insite, and it shows Airwave and the police real
time call traffic levels, incident and coverage data. This was used during the riots to manage police officers
and their communications.
6.2 Insite was particularly important during the riots as the quickly changing situation and the deployment
of 25 different police forces in London meant that there was little time for briefing and limited local knowledge.
It allowed the police forces to quickly and efficiently identify inefficient use of the network, showing where
capacity could be freed up and reused in other areas.
6.3 Insite data was also used by Airwave’s teams to show which areas were likely to suffer congestion
before this occurred, allowing pre-emptive action. This allowed constant network availability to be maintained
and meant that the emergency services were not distracted from their core tasks by the need to manage
communications.
6.4 Emergency Communications at Major Incidents
6.4.1 The Airwave network was purpose built for the emergency services, both in day-to-day use and
during major incidents. Specific features which enable this are described below.
6.5 Coverage
6.5.1 The Airwave network is contractually required to cover 99.9% of Great Britain. This level of
coverage was requested by the emergency services when the network was built; before this
there were large black spots in central London caused by the “shadows” of large buildings.
6.5.2 The civil unrest in August mainly took place in town centres where the police are regularly on
patrol. This level of coverage means that the police will always be able to communicate, no
matter where in the country disturbances occur.
6.6 Interoperability
6.6.1 Major incidents require joint working between the emergency services and between different
forces, which in turn requires a common communications platform. Lady Justice Hallett’s 7/7
inquest report noted the communications difficulties faced by some first responders to the
bombings because communications, before Airwave’s introduction, were not shared. Airwave’s
service is fully interoperable across the Emergency Services.
6.6.2 This relatively recent development was particularly important in the civil unrest in August: in
London on the night of August 9, thousands of additional officers from 25 different police
forces bolstered Metropolitan Police operations under mutual aid. In these circumstances it is
vital that all members of the emergency services use the same communications platform and
have sufficient spectrum capacity to allow co-operation and an efficient chain of command.
Without the use of one standard communications system, these cross-border forces would have
been unable to communicate effectively with each other. Also there are no additional costs and
prolonged set up times for re-retraining and familiarisation that would be experienced if
different forces used different systems.