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Officers threaten boycott over missing shields and helmets
Rob Singh, Evening Standard21.10.08
Rank and file police officers are threatening to boycott training for future public events after alleging they were left exposed without riot shields or helmets at the Notting Hill Carnival.
Rioters hurled bricks and bottles at officers during a two-hour assault on the final day of this year's event. Forty police were injured and 310 people were arrested during the trouble.
A forum on the Police Federation website, which represents officers, said those in charge were guilty of "a gross breach of health and safety".
The post said: "Our kit was on a coach somewhere and at no point did we have access to shields on the coach. There was specific intent to seriously injure police officers and yet again we as an organisation failed to protect ourselves from members of the public."
It was claimed teams from the Met's Territorial Support Group, who deal with serious public disorder, only came to assist an hour later, but they initially had no shields or helmets either.
Those first sent to the disturbance were level two officers, who have limited public order events training.
The web posting claims officers would in future snub the level-two training needed for deployment to disturbances such as the Notting Hill violence. "Whoever was in charge was clearly refusing to allow officers to wear appropriate protective equipment because he/she was more concerned with public opinion rather than the safety of their officers," the post said.
"This is a gross breach of health and safety, and neglect of duty on the part of the service. Something has to be done about level two officers being deployed without their kit.
"Simply put, they do not want to volunteer their services to a police force that will not protect them.
"The fools who are running this organisation need to realise that in order to fight crime effectively we may upset sections of the public every now and then."
Some 11,000 police were deployed during carnival weekend in one of the biggest operations of the year.
An inquiry has been launched into the events and it is believed senior officers met last week to discuss what went wrong. The meeting included the Commander in charge of the operation, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Chris Allison.
Today, defending his tactics, he said the timing of deployment of officers in protective clothing was difficult and could even increase the level of disorder if wrong. "No event commander would place public perception above public and officer safety but the timing of such a deployment is always a challenging one," said Mr Allison.
Reader views (9)
I thought the Notting Hill Carnival was lovely and cuddly and a splendid example of diversity, integration and the contribution to our splendid multicultural society made by the West Indian community. What possible need could the Police have for protection ?
- Squiz, Islington
The police should simply refuse to give protection to overpaid and pampered politicians, who aren't worth anything, and then see if there's a change of mind and political will.
- L.Taubler, London / UK
Why are the senior Police worried about upsetting someone who is throwing bricks and bottles at you...seems to me he is already unhappy. Had the carnival been a football match the heavy squad would have been deployed ASAP and the idiots routed.
- Paul, London
The problem is "The Notting Hill Carnival"
This carnival should be banned and something else put on in its place, we should never put our police officers in such a violent situation as this.
- Susie, Perth
We have the same problem in Belfast. The public want us to come down hard on anti-social and violent behaviour, and we do mount special patrols at weekends for this purpose. However, we are only allowed to wear normal patrol kit, as public order kit is considered "too confrontational". Consequently, we are invariably unable to deal with many incidents. We also get bricked and petrol bombed on a regular basis, but nothing is done for the same reason. As a direct result of this inaction the situation perpetuates.
This is entirely the fault of the command ramks who are all too eager to placate local political activists in order to protect their own career interests.
I don't live where I Police (it would be too dangerous because of government aquiescence to republican terrorists)so I can walk away from it at the end of a shift. The local residents are not so lucky.
- Belfast Peeler, Belfast
"Exmetseniorofficer" says it all; its easy to have such views when his or her most recent policing memory is of being sat behind a nice safe desk and not having to deal with violent situations either on normal patrol duties or public order events. The reason why policing in general and the Met in particular is today held in poor regard is directly related to the dire quality of the current senior 'management'.
- Exmetfrontline Sergeant, Spilsby, UK.
Exmetseniorofficer makes some valid points about the state of the modern police force, but as a not so senior exmetofficer I would like to say that this particular problem has always been there.
Level 2 Training is ridiculously over the top and much time and money is spent training the officers and those in charge of deploying them, yet so often there is reluctance to so deploy.
This I blame on the fear of litigation and the possible effects on senior officers future careers. How many times have Level 3's been walloped by an angry crowd whilst Level 2's are sitting around the corner, fully kitted up waiting to go?
I think the command teams are often paralysed with indecision. It was the same at the height of Broadwater Farm! If you've asked for the resources at the planning level then bloody use them when things go pear shaped. If you can't make such decisions then don't become cadre trained. Such indecision often exacerbates such situations.
- Ranter, Maidstone, Kent
As much as I agree with exmetseniorofficer on quite few things, officers cannot be put in danger to pander to opinion.
If they are taking thrown missiles they need protecting. What will public opinion be when an office takes a brick to the head and dies?
- Stuart, Luton, UK.
For goodness sake stop whining and moaning! If you don't want to do the job that you are paid handsomely (at inflated overtime rates) to do, then you have an option. There are plenty of people out in these difficult times there who would be happy do the job, equally efficiently, for half the money.
What the Met and other police 'services' have got to realise is that because of the way they perform on a day to day basis, the public no longer regards them as 'heroes on the front line' any more - merely public servants.
In any event, the Notting Hill Carnival as I know from personal experience, is ridiculously over-policed and officers are seldom, if ever, in any sort of danger.
- Exmetseniorofficer, London, UK.
