Relations between police and the Government hit a low yesterday as the head of the Metropolitan Police dismissed ministers as people who “weren’t there” during the riots.
The taunt by the acting Metropolitan Police Commissioner came after the leader of chief officers in England and Wales said that the politicans’ role in tackling the riots was “irrelevant”.
Senior officers united behind Sir Hugh Orde’s rejection of the role played by David Cameron and Theresa May in dealing with the disturbances and their attempts to take credit for the tactics that quelled the disorder.
The public display of police anger came after criticism by the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary in the Commons over the way the police handled the riots. Asked about the criticism, Tim Godwin, the acting Metropolitan Police Commissioner, took a swipe at ministers’ claims they had ordered tougher policing. “I think after any event like this, people will always make comments who weren’t there.” He said that the public should be “proud” of the way police chiefs had reacted.
The Home Secretary and Prime Minister were on holiday when riots erupted last Saturday. Police activated a National Mobilisation Plan to swamp the streets before either returned.
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Sir Hugh, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said: “The fact that politicians chose to come back is an irrelevance in terms of the tactics that were by then developing.
“The more robust policing tactics you saw were not a function of political interference; they were a function of the numbers being available to allow the chief constables to change tactics.”
Leaders of ordinary officers joined in the attack, accusing ministers of making a “cheap shot” by suggesting that police changed their response only after ministerial intervention.
Simon Reed, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said: “It’s a slight on the professionalism of the police service and the rank and file because some of the language, some of the tone used, was that they were too timid — almost that they weren’t brave enough.”
Ian Hanson, chairman of the Greater Manchester Police Federation, also said that it was “disingenuous of politicians to say that they [had] sorted the problems out”.
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Police chiefs believe that politicians’ boasts are an indication of what lies in store after the elections next year of police and crime commissioners with powers to set police budgets and fire chief constables. A senior officer who has been working round the clock on riot command operations told The Times: “We cannot trust ministers any more. Frankly I don’t know how we’re going to deal with these people in the future.”
Police chiefs have warned Mr Cameron that a large fall in the number of police officers on Britain’s streets will coincide with the next election in 2015, unless he rethinks the 20 per cent cut to forces’ budgets. Police reject government claims that it can be done without reducing visible officers.
Yesterday, Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, suggested that the Prime Minister had been wrong to criticise the initial response from officers. “Anyone can have 20-20 hindsight about what decisions could have been taken.” A poll after the riots found support for reversing police cuts and widespread dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister’s response. Most voters — 54 per cent — told ComRes that Mr Cameron had “failed to provide the necessary leadership to take control of the rioting in London early enough”.
The survey of 2,008 adults for The Independent showed that 71 per cent backed the reversal of cuts to police numbers while 78 per cent backed automatic jail sentences for even the most minor of riot-related offences.
· Bill Bratton, the former New York police chief who is to advise David Cameron on how to deal with gangs, has said that the police should not be squeamish about using force. “We have an expression in the US: it may be lawful but it looks awful,” he told The Times yesterday. “What’s important is that the . . . force being used is oftentimes to guarantee the safety of the public.” He added that his job would be to try to apply to Britain the US experience in tackling gangs — “whether it’s investigative techniques, police organisational structures, intervention strategies or laws specific to gangs”.