The London riots raise basic issues in policing

I am a great admirer of the Met (popular name for London’s fabled police force), for their utter professionalism and integrity. Events of the past few weeks in London have however been disillusioning. First came allegations surrounding the illegal hacking of phones by reporters working for Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid, News of the World, which led to the resignation of the Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, and one of his deputies. There is  now only an acting head, Deputy Commissioner Tim Godwin, an officer no doubt of some repute, but one who does not yet have the track record for being assigned such a sensitive job on a permanent basis. And now come the riots, when parts of the city — Tottenham, Croydon, Lewisham, Clapham and Ealing — have been held to ransom by hundreds of unruly youth and young adults, almost all of them belonging to the black community. Their unbelievable acts of arson and looting started in Tottenham in north-east London last Saturday evening, at the end of what was billed as a peaceful demonstration against the death of a local youth, Mark Duggan, 29, in a police shooting. The police were not only outnumbered, but were totally surprised by the extent of vandalism. The initial belief that trouble was confined to London was soon belied with the riots spreading to Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol on Sunday. Monday was no different, with outrageous hooliganism still stalking some areas in London and elsewhere. The situation in London is delicate although there has been less violence as I filed this column on Tuesday night. But trouble continues elsewhere, especially in Birmingham, where the third Test between India and England is being held. TV images have vividly captured the criminality of it all. Individuals with black hoods and gowns were found helping themselves to goods of all kind — furniture, TV sets and other electronic gadgets and jewellery — after breaking into shops. This looting was right in the presence of other members of the public, and interestingly, with the police themselves remaining passive spectators. Police inactivity is attributed to their reluctance to provoke the law breakers; something that the police believe could lead to the use of force and accentuate a local issue. This is a legacy of the past, when they had been squarely accused of strong-arm methods against the community, especially the blacks. [caption id=“attachment_58340” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Jim Dyson/Getty Images”]  [/caption] In particular, the Scarman report, which looked into the handling of the famous Brixton riots of 1981, had made carping comments on the insensitive police handling of blacks. Even assuming that the police were weighed down by this unfavourable past, there is a strong cross-section among Londoners who feel that the police should have intervened at least when crime was taking place right under their noses. To the Indian eye, police handling of the situation seemed too soft. There are several lessons which police in the rest of the world could learn. Foremost of them is that policing and intelligence collection have a symbiotic relationship. The two necessarily go hand in hand. The gross misconduct of the London youth was undoubtedly fuelled by economic deprivation and a lack of stakes in civilised conduct. But this is true of most of the riots in any part of the world. When this is so, how do you explain a large number of youth acting in concert from different parts of such a huge city as London, unless they had some active channels of communication to plan the violence? We now learn that BlackBerries were used to communicate with various groups. The Met had always been uncomfortable with London teenagers, especially their proclivity to resort to knife violence even when there was no provocation. Events of the past few days were distinct for their spontaneity and unison. Such empathy and harmony in action could not have been achieved overnight. Long months of preparation were indeed a prerequisite. Obviously the Met did not have listening posts among the youth, which would have alerted them to their high levels of resentment and a capacity to mobilise anti-social elements. A swift evaluation of a developing field situation is crucial to effective policing that aims at controlling damage to the community. There is a feeling that the Met underestimated the networking of black youth this time. As a result, there was no widespread police deployment in crucial sectors of the city. The slender resources available to the police could not be the only reason for their thin spread in Tottenham and elsewhere once the trouble extended itself to a wider territory. A certain miscalculation of the ability of hoodlums to strike at will was highly probable for the ease with which young criminals could hit a variety of targets with impunity. There was definitely a measure of preparation, if one registers the fact that a majority of the offenders had taken enough precautions to hide their identities by putting on hoods and gowns. If 16,000 policemen could be marshalled on Tuesday, as announced by the Prime Minister, from different parts of the country for enhancing community protection, at least half that number could have been assembled for street patrolling right after Duggan’s death. Continues on next page The complaint of many aggrieved citizens is that they hardly saw any police presence in their areas when their shops and homes were being vandalised. We often criticise the Indian police for exaggerated deployment at many places. This was possibly one occasion when the Met could have emulated the Indian practice to great effect. The Duggan death in police shooting was controversial. There are many theories floating around, including excessive use of police force on him. This is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The IPCC’s initial finding seems to go against the police. Whatever be the case, there was an absolute need for continued and imaginative communication with the victim’s family and prominent members of the local community, once he was killed. By all accounts, this was not done, opening the door for speculation and rumour-mongering against the police. Communication is the essence of good policing. Where this is weak, policing is inadequate and wasteful. The London riots reveal a major breakdown of the family as an institution, where children imbibe good civic values. The staggering number of youngsters who resorted to violence and looting in London during the past few days is indicative of this. Shocking is the report that, in a few places, mothers were physically present at shops and found exhorting their wards to run away with the available goods. This is one example of a rising accent on consumerism at the cost of traditional values. It passes one’s comprehension as to how this trend can be reversed. This is a community problem and not one of the police alone. But it needs to be addressed in the UK on a war footing if there has to be no repetition of the ugly events of the past few days. Prime Minister David Cameron has cut short his vacation in Italy and returned to London to take charge of a very difficult situation. One of his top priorities will be to choose a good chief for the Met. The riots perhaps call for a new perspective on the requisite qualifications. A tough leader is no doubt necessary. But then he will also have to be one who can forge strong ties with the community. Several names are doing the rounds. There are no blacks among the contenders and those who figure in the shortlist publicised by the media. Will a black get the nod? Will it actually help improve police relations with that community? One factor is going to embarrass the Conservatives. This is their pre-election proposal to cut down the police budget. Whether they will be brave enough to go through with this after all that has happened in the past few days is a matter for debate.