Revealed: how police lost control of summer riots in first crucial 48 hours

[alp227]

Source: The Observer

Frontline police had to use their own mobile phones during the August riots, after the official radio system collapsed and some forces lost control of the situation to the extent that they had no idea how many officers were on duty, according to a withering internal appraisal of the response to the disorder.

The Police Federation review, which has been leaked to the Observer, reveals that policing failures during the disorder were so serious that the body set up to co-ordinate the response to a national emergency was ineffective for the "first 48 hours of the disturbance". During that period the violence spread from the capital across the country.

The Police National Information Co-ordination Centre, which supports officers working with the Cabinet Office crisis management team, Cobra, "did not work efficiently" during the initial two days of rioting, according to the official assessment.

The report is the first detailed account of the riots from the viewpoint of the rank-and-file police, who felt that some officers were left "directionless" due to severe communication failures.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/03/police-summer-riots-hours

[DeSwiss]

1. And the primary reason the police sucked was lost way down in the report's footnotes:

- K&R

[ananda]

2. Excuse me... summer RIOTS????

WTF

[PDJane]

3. That's from Great Britain........

It wasn't exactly riots there, either.....unless you're one of the 1%.

[PatrynXX]

5. Think yall need like a country flag over the story

like blu-ray.com does over which blu ray releases they are talking about. (yes being a stubborn idiot, went to amazon in france and had chrome translate the site for me to order crimson rivers (region free) It had the french flag over that for some time. only way I knew where to order it.

[No Elephants]

4. Cabinet level office that coordinates with the police. UGH! I guess Homeland Security does that?

[dipsydoodle]

6. That is not LBN

Its an article based on Wednesday's edition of the Guardian : http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/30/london-riot-report-police-intelligence

[Downwinder]

7. Is this LBN? I thought I clicked on GD.