Watchdog flags UK police failures over anti-immigration riots

UK police underestimated "the rising tide of violence" that culminated in anti-immigration riots earlier this year and failed to mitigate against online misinformation which helped fuel it, a watchdog report said Wednesday.

Disorder erupted across England and Northern Ireland for more than a week in late July and early August after three girls were killed in a knife attack in Southport, northwest England.

Initially sparked by false rumours spread online that the perpetrator was a Muslim asylum seeker, the disorder then morphed into widespread anti-migrant rioting, England's worst disturbances in more than a decade.

More than 300 officers were injured during the unrest, with 54 admitted to hospital.

The report by the emergency services watchdog into the police response found intelligence "gaps" and failures to understand and curb misinformation spreading on social media, as well as operational errors.

"The police didn't have a proper intelligence picture of the rising tide of violence," Chief Inspector of Constabulary Andy Cooke concluded in the assessment.

"No one understood or could counter the emerging cause and effect of that misinformation and disinformation," the head of His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) added.

"So the police failed adequately to denounce it or mitigate against it in real time to deter or curtail the disorder."

- 'Extreme nationalist sentiment' -
 

The HMICFRS report also found police intelligence assessments failed to spot that various violent events in 2023 and in the first half of this year were indicators of likely future disorder.

They included disturbances near asylum seeker hotels in northwest and northeast England early last year, followed by violence at several different protests in London and other incidents.

"We have found that the series of incidents of violence and disorder across the UK during 2023 and 2024 should have influenced the police service's assessments of threat and risk," it said.

"Our assessment of these incidents suggests that the risks of disorder were greater than the police believed them to be.

"They involved extreme nationalist sentiment, aggravated activism or serious disorder."

Meanwhile, police leaders made the decision to coordinate and mobilise specialist public order officers "too late", after days of disturbances, according to the report.

Cooke called for a national coordinator in charge of instructing England's various police forces to provide mutual aid in such circumstances.

He also noted that while systems needed reform, officers should be commended for their response.

"Officers displayed immense bravery in the face of extreme violence. It is to their enormous credit that they kept the public safe," he said.