For five days at the beginning of August 2011, it felt like we were on the brink of anarchy.
In towns and cities across England, police appeared to be powerless to stop marauding mobs of protestors, rioters and looters. Thousands of shops, vehicles and houses were damaged or burned, forcing some families to flee their homes; over 300 emergency workers and members of the public were injured; five people lost their lives. The policing, clear-up and compensation costs were estimated to be around £500 million.
The disturbances had been sparked by the fatal police shooting in Tottenham, north London, of a young Black man, Mark Duggan. But the vast majority of the violence that followed had nothing to do with that incident: it was caused by criminals taking advantage of an initially uncertain policing response, people with grievances or pent-up resentment towards those in authority, and others who were simply swept up in the excitement and saw a chance to 'have a go'.
The disorder that parts of the UK is now witnessing is different in many ways, particularly in its causes, the groups predominantly involved and those targeted, but there are parallels with what took place 13 years ago - and lessons from that period which must be applied now if the situation isn't to escalate.
What principally quelled the riots of 2011 was a surge in the presence of the police after they'd initially been overwhelmed. The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee, which examined what had happened, said: "The single most important reason why the disorder spread was the perception, relayed by television as well as new social media, that in some areas the police had lost control of the streets." In London, where the trouble had started, there were 3,000 uniformed officers on duty on each of the first two evenings; by the fourth night, there were 16,000. The increased numbers worked.
Police forces that can't deploy enough officers themselves can ask other constabularies to send reinforcements as part of a system known as 'mutual aid'. Run by a unit within the National Police Chiefs' Council, it's a slicker operation than in 2011 when the policing of the riots was hampered by a testy relationship between police leaders and Theresa May, who was then Home Secretary. The early signs from the collaborative approach taken by Sir Keir Starmer are more encouraging, but Ministers and chief constables must ensure that there are sufficient numbers of police officers available in the areas where they are needed. Just as in 2011, footage of groups running down streets, throwing stones, breaking into buildings without officers in sight will only encourage more to follow. The Home Office should immediately reassure chiefs that it will cover the costs associated with transferring personnel from force to force and backfilling roles where there are gaps.
What also helped settle the disturbances of 2011 was the rapid response of the criminal justice system. Within five days of the first riots, 1,500 people had been arrested and the courts had begun working around the clock to process cases. Among the first to be sentenced was a man jailed for eight months for stealing clothes. There can be no better deterrent than the certainty of being caught and the knowledge that the punishment will be swift and firm. So, it's vital that in the next few days we see the perpetrators of this summer's violence brought to court. It's concerning that five days on from the first disturbance in Southport there appear to have been only a relatively small number of charges. That needs to change. Bail should not be an option for those who can't be dealt with immediately; for those who are convicted, prosecutors should urge magistrates and judges to impose the maximum penalties possible.
Some of the investigations into the disorder will understandably take time as detectives try to identify who was involved and gather evidence to prosecute those who've been detained. Twelve months after the 2011 riots, 3,100 defendants had been brought before the courts. We can only hope that this summer's disturbances do not end up with prosecutions on that scale, but whatever the numbers police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts must be prepared. Unlike in 2011, when the technology wasn't available, investigators will have the advantage of being able to use retrospective facial recognition software to match pictures from CCTV, body-worn cameras and smartphones to images of suspects and offenders held on police databases. The Prime Minister rightly referenced facial recognition in his first comments about the disturbances, suggesting it should be more widely used by police. Although it can be deployed to compare real-time images of crowds and gatherings with a watchlist, its (less controversial) use as a post-event investigative tool will be where it is most impactful over the coming weeks and months - and forces must be encouraged and assisted to use it to the full.
It's inevitable that there will be comment about the underlying "causes" of this summer's disorder, but now is not the moment to focus on that. Dwelling on the causes when police are in the midst of a battle to restore order to our communities only serves to legitimise the violence. After the 2011 riots there were numerous inquiries, reviews and reports which sought to understand why the trouble had occurred and address the issues which lay behind it. There will be a time for that after this year's disorder, but not now. There is nothing more frightening than losing control of the streets. It happened, briefly, 13 years ago; in some parts of the country it's happening again. We need to support the police to bring the streets back under control.
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