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

Ev w82 Home Affairs Committee: Evidence
Further written evidence submitted by London Criminal Justice Partnership
I am writing to you following the response you received from the chair of the London Criminal Justice
Partnership on 10 November 2011 and would like to add an additional note to the following paragraph:
“The informal monitoring information in relation to offending has now ceased to be collated as this
could be misleading.”
For your further information, the collation of management information for reoffending data was suspended
earlier this year due to discussions around data sharing agreements. We do not plan to resume the collation of
this information due to the fact that we are nearing the production of a final reconviction analysis by Ipsos
Mori and it is important that our focus is upon the final and formal analysis.
1 December 2011
Written evidence submitted by the Police Federation of England and Wales
Thank you for your letter dated 6 December concerning the Policing Large Scale Disorder which has been
forwarded to me by Mr McKeever for my attention.
It was a pleasure to meet with you on Wednesday where I was in a position to share with you a copy of the
Police Federation submission to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and in addition a copy of
the comments on the airwave system from frontline officers who had kindly responded to a Metropolitan Police
federation survey designed to learn the lessons from the events in August.
As you will be aware these were unprecedented times in the world of operational policing, not since either
the early 80’s or early part of 2001 had we in the police service been under such attack from those who seek
to challenge authority on a scale we never envisaged.
We will always learn the lessons from such events and the Police federation sees itself as playing an
important part in representing the views of rank and file from an operational perspective in order that their
voice is heard by not only those detractors but also those who want them to continue to undertake those
extraordinary duties that of Public order policing.
Analysis such as this will not only assist to restore the confidence in the police but more importantly the
communities we serve.
We held a number of meetings at our Headquarters in Leatherhead with representatives from those areas
where there had been a disturbance and we systematically went through the events that unfolded in the days
of the disorder. In these meetings we had first-hand accounts from those officers involved as to what areas they
were concerned about and where improvements could be made.
As I explained to you briefly on Wednesday our report was not designed to be a technical report but one that
expressed the views and frustrations of those who were working long hours, at short notice and in extraordinary
circumstances. When in our report we make mention of “overload” that relates to officers not being afforded
the ability to transmit due to the radio traffic and reception issues all of which have an impact on not only
officer safety but the ability for officers to be deployed efficiently. Due to compatibility issues officers from
forces outside the metropolitan were not in a position to use their personal issue radio and resorted to using
mobile phones.
I hope our report is of use in explaining our position and in an order to move forward we have made a
recommendation that a review be undertaken of communication procedures during a national crisis.
On behalf of the police federation I am more than happy to discuss this further with you.
9 December 2011
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